Now that the excitement over the discovery has subsided, the hard work of bringing to market the world's only vaccines for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever is just beginning.
Dr. Steven Jones, a research scientist at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Laboratories and a codiscoverer of the vaccines, said the search is on for a private-sector contractor to conduct human trials, which may take up to 18 months, and manufacture the vaccines.
In June, Jones and his colleagues — Dr. Heinz Feldmann of Winnipeg and Dr. Thomas Geisbert of the US Army Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland — announced that they had successfully vaccinated monkeys against the deadly Ebola virus and genetically related Marburg virus (Nature Medicine 2005;11:786-90).
Jones says the Marburg vaccine is based on the Musoke strain and cross protects across strains. The Ebola vaccine is based on the 1976 strain of the Zaire species and protects from the 1995, but not the other 2 species that affect humans.
There is no treatment for Ebola or Marburg fever, which causes diffuse vascular permeability and bleeding. It kills between 40% to 90% of those infected. Since 2004, Angola has experienced an outbreak of Marburg, which, as of July 29, had killed 323 of the 368 infected, according to WHO.
Jones and his colleagues took some of the prototype vaccine with them on a recent trip to Angola in case of a needle- stick injury. Of 86 needle-stick involving Ebola or Marburg virus and medical staff, there have been no survivors, Jones said. “That makes [using the vaccine] a very easy decision.” They didn't need it.