Open AccessControl of Ebola hemorrhagic fever: vaccine development and our Ebola project in Sierra Leone
Author(s) -
Tokiko Watanabe,
Yoshihiro Kawaoka
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
uirusu
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1884-3433
pISSN - 0042-6857
DOI - 10.2222/jsv.66.53
Subject(s) - sierra leone , ebola virus , ebola vaccine , ebolavirus , virology , ebola hemorrhagic fever , medicine , viral hemorrhagic fever , outbreak , development economics , economics
Since December 2013, West Africa has experienced the worst Ebola virus outbreak in recorded history. Of the 28,639 cases reported to the World Health Organization as of March 2016, nearly half (14,124) occurred in Sierra Leone. With a case fatality rate of approximately 40%, this outbreak has claimed the lives of 11,316 individuals. No FDA-approved vaccines or drugs are available to prevent or treat Ebola virus infection. Experimental vaccines and therapies are being developed; however, their safety and efficacy are still being evaluated. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop control measures to prevent or limit future Ebola virus outbreaks.Previously, we developed a replication-defective Ebola virus that lacks the coding region for the essential viral transcription activator VP30 (Ebola ΔVP30 virus). Here, we evaluated the vaccine efficacy of Ebola ΔVP30 virus in a non-human primate model and describe our collaborative Ebola project in Sierra Leone.