ROME, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - An international team of scientists in Italy has developed a medicine that can give immunity from the deadly Ebola virus for up to 10 months, the newspaper La Stampa wrote Monday.
The new vaccine, which was developed by a team of scientists from Italy and the United States at the private laboratory IRBM Science Park near Rome, has already been tested on chimpanzees. The newspaper noted that the drug provided immunity from Ebola virus for vaccinated animals for up to 10 months.
The drug is based on a particular virus carried by chimpanzees, which was approved for research by the World Health Organization (WHO). The trials in humans will commence in the near future. It is expected that experimental doses of the vaccine will continue to be produced in the IRBM Science Park laboratory.
WHO has previously reported on two promising drugs that can help in the fight against Ebola. One of them will be based on the vesicular stomatitis virus, with the Ebola gene introduced in its structure - VSV-EBO. The second one is based on the chimpanzee carrier adenovirus ChAd-EBO. If the safety of vaccines is proven, they will be applied in November 2014 on a priority basis to health professionals in the affected countries and those who are in contact with infected people.
WHO has also issued a document, noting that about 15 thousand doses of the drug based on chimpanzee adenovirus will be ready by the end of the year. The clinical trials of the vaccine based on the vesicular stomatitis virus will begin shortly. Currently there are about 800 doses of the drug.
The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) and was named for the river, which flowed past the village with the first infected.
The worst Ebola epidemic in history began in southern Guinea at the end of 2013 and soon spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The outbreak has claimed more than 2,000 lives, according to the latest WHO estimates. More than 3,900 cases have been recorded. The number of people affected by the virus could rise to 20,000 before the virus is brought under control, the organization states.
