Ebola vaccine trial begins

Trial of an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus is to begin in Oxford.

The first of 60 healthy volunteers will be injected with the vaccine which contains only a small portion of genetic material from the virus which cannot cause the disease.

Normally it would take years of human trials before a new vaccine is approved for use.

But the urgency of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa demands that this experimental vaccine is fast tracked at an astonishing rate.

If the trials are successful, it could be used to immunise health workers in affected areas by the end of the year.

By then, around 10,000 doses should be available.

The vaccine is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health.

Funding for the trials is coming from the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, and the UK Department for International Development.

BBC