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BOB HIRSHON (host):
A vaccine against Ebola. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
The west African Ebola outbreak has claimed over 11,000 lives over the past year and a half. But effective vaccines to prevent the highly contagious virus should be available soon. NIH virologist Andrea Marzi and her colleagues tested a vaccine called VSV-Ebola on macaque monkeys. They report in the journal Science that it fully protected the animals when given between 7 and 28 days before exposure to the deadly virus.
ANDREA MARZI (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health):
All macaques lived through the infection; did not get sick. So that really shows how effective and how rapidly effective a single dose of this VSV-Ebola virus vaccine is.
HIRSHON:
Another study published in the journal Lancet found similar levels of protection in a trial of the vaccine on people living in west Africa. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.