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Vaccine trials underway but months from deployment; community trust and funerals complicate containment
Summary
U.N. officials said vaccine trials have begun but a deployable vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain is months away, and that community distrust and traditional funeral practices—with many deaths occurring in the community—are major obstacles to stopping transmission.
Edith Letera of the Associated Press asked whether early vaccine trials were under way and whether family concealment of sick members and funeral practices remain a problem. Julian Harness said a trial has commenced with a volunteer in the United Kingdom but that an effective, deployable vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain is "many months away."
Harness said therapeutics and post-exposure prophylaxis trials are under way and that therapeutics are closer to availability than vaccines, but he emphasized that timely care seeking is critical: he said about 60 percent of deaths were occurring in the community, which he described as dangerous because viral load is highest around the time of death. "If people come into care quickly ... they have a very good chance of surviving ebola," he said, noting that community trust is essential to encourage early presentation.
