Trial on Safety and Immunogenicity of Ebola Vaccines Yields Promising Results

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles (green) both budding and attached to the surface of infected VERO E6 cells (orange). Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (Credit: NIAID).

Ebola epidemics occur periodically in various sub-Saharan African countries. While vaccines exist and have already received WHO Prequalification[1] against the Zaire ebolavirusspecies, it is essential to pursue and intensify efforts to supplement the available data to develop a safe and effective Ebola vaccine strategies in adults and children alike. The PREVAC international consortium, which includes scientists from Inserm and from institutions in Africa, USA, and UK, has published the results of a large-scale randomized clinical trial in West Africa in the New England Journal of Medicine. These results confirm the safety of three different vaccine regimens, and suggest that an immune response is induced and maintained for up to 12 months. The NEJM article, published on December 14, 2022, is titled “Vaccines for Ebola Virus Disease: the PREVAC Randomized Trial.”