Experimental Ebola vaccine's trials to start tomorrow in Switzerland

Zee Media Bureau

Geneva: Canadian authorities are all set to send 800 to 1,000 vials of experimental Ebola vaccine for trials at the Lausanne University Hospital.

The human trial of vaccine is set to begin in Switzerland from tomorrow after receiving the green light from the Swiss regulatory authority.

The trial, which is receiving support from the WHO, is the latest in a series of trials that are ongoing in Mali, Britain and the US.

According to reports, the trial of the vaccine will be conducted among 120 healthy volunteers first with support from the UN World Health Organization, who will be later sent as medical staff to fight the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The vaccine "ChAd-Ebola", developed by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, consists of a virus that is rendered harmless and used as genetic carrier for one Ebola protein.

There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus so far, which has killed nearly 5,000 people in the outbreak centred in west Africa.

(With Agencies inputs)