Ebola Vaccine On The Horizon?

coryboehne writes "A highly interesting article on the CBS news website gives some very promising information on a fast acting single-shot Ebola vaccine. This is an important step because it will allow an outbreak of Ebola to be stopped quickly."

Ebola vaccine exists, but it is inconvenient

[KingPrad]

They already have an Ebola vaccine that works in monkeys. It isn't convenient enough to use large-scale however. It takes multiple shots spread over months and it takes 8 months to build up real immunity to Ebola.

It will be good if one of these research teams succeed in making a fast-acting single-shot vaccine. They talked about this on NPR this morning on Morning Edition I think. www.npr.org

Food and drug admin

[brokencomputer]

If this vaccine is going to be tested in Africa why does it need approval by the FDA?

Re:Food and drug admin

[aridhol]

Because it's being developed in the USA.

Article error

[aridhol]

From the article:

Health workers in Africa -- the only place the few outbreaks have occurred -- might be the most likely recipients of an approved Ebola vaccine.

Actually, there was an outbreak in Reston, Virginia. My wife is doing her Ph.D work on that strain. But it's not her lab in the article.

Re:Article error

[Anonymous Coward]

The incident in Virginia wasn't an outbreak. The strain (now called Ebola Reston) spread through a population of imported monkeys in 1989. Six people seroconverted, but none developed any filovirus-related illness from their exposure to Ebola Reston.

In order for it to be considered an "outbreak," human beings have to get sick. They didn't.

Ebola is actually no big deal, immunologically speaking. It's hard to contract, and it requires a massive viral load before the patient becomes symptomatic. Patients that superconvert often die horribly, but the likelihood that any given exposure will turn into a superconversion are miniscule.

Re:28 Days Later...

[lylfyl]

Actually, I'm in the middle of re-reading 'Rainbow Six', so the first thing I thought was "I am not getting that vaccination!"

Freaky movie, though

Wow. Only 4 comments so far

[nortcele]

It would appear that Ebola is not "News for Nerds". Geeks are likely only interested in diseases that are contracted other than by human proximity or contact.

Re:Wow. Only 4 comments so far

[I Like Swords!!!]

What is this Ebola virus everyone keeps talking about? Is it dangerous? What files do I need to download to add to my anti-virus scanner? I don't want to get my system infect with Ebola if I can help it.

pretty cool trick.

[fireduck]

a more informative write up can be found at nature [nature.com] (there's a link to the actual research at the bottom, for those whose institutions suscribe).

rather than infect the host with dead/weakened ebola, they took the ebola gene that is responsible for making the coat protein (the capsid which surrounds the nucleic material), and inserted that gene into the adenovirus genome. andenovirus infects cell. ebola gene is activated and starts making lots of ebola coat protein. host response kicks in and starts making antibodies for both adenovirus proteins as well as ebola proteins (apparently adenovirus triggers big host response, although adenovirus really isn't that dangerous). host now has a plethora of ebola antibodies.

this particular trick should be useful for almost any virus for which the coat protein genes are known.

Cheap?

[tsa]

Health workers in Africa -- the only place the few outbreaks have occurred -- might be the most likely recipients of an approved Ebola vaccine.

Let's hope the medicine will be so cheap that the locals can afford it too. Sadly this will most probably not be the case.

Re:Cheap?

[brokencomputer]

I would hope that it be provided for free to the inhabitants. I geuss the government is more concerned with antiterrorism funds even though a lot more people are dieing from diseases and starvation in Africa and even in the US(cancer especially)!

Re:Cheap?

[mugnyte]

Well I guess you wouldn't mind paying for it. everyone wants to "shift funds" from perceived unimportant ideas to their dear-at-heart ones, but without moving existing money, would you support higher taxes for this? Not many people would.

It's not that [all] people are greedy bastards [all the time], but our western system of capitalism demands money as the bringer of survival, and then leisure choices. Almost a basic need at the bottom. So, having the government pay for this is not my favorite idea.

Ins

One-Time Vaccine

[Jonsey]

"Sure! It's only one shot, and it'll guarentee that you'll never get Ebola again in the rest of your life!"

...

Wait a minute.

(Humor through obscurity, it's fantastic)

Not News...This guy is known for shoddy/shady work

[jeeves99]

I'm hesitant to accept this guy's work. He's made similar claims in the past that never panned out. Now he's claiming that the booster shot is enough to promote resistance, even when other researchers have already tried and discounted this possibility. So whats so special about his monkeys that made the vaccine "work"? I wouldn't put too much faith in this finding until an independent group has confirmed it via repeating the study. He's either just boosted his career to new highs, or he's just killed i

Excellent analysis

[Hard_Code]

"This is an important step because it will allow an outbreak of Ebola to be stopped quickly."

I love this type of insightful analysis on Slashdot. :)