From the article In Africa, a Decline in New Ebola Cases Complicates Vaccine Development in Friday’s New York Times:
As authorities and drug companies hurriedly prepare to begin testing Ebola vaccines in West Africa, they are starting to contemplate a new challenge: whether an ebbing of the outbreak could make it more difficult to determine if the experimental vaccines are effective.
“For this reason, it’s very urgent that we get into the field very quickly to do these clinical trials, because if there are very, very, very few cases of Ebola, as I’m sure you understand, it’s going to be difficult to test whether the vaccines work or not,” Dr. Helen Rees, an adviser to the World Health Organization, said during a news conference on Friday at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.
Apparently the new treatment centers and safer burial practices have helped a lot. Ebola could come surging back, of course, but the news is encouraging.
January 11, 2014
I don’t understand. A vaccine is to prevent the disease from attacking one. What is the point of worrying about people who have already had the disease?
The vaccine is for all the people who haven’t had it yet but may be exposed in the future. In order to compare the vaccines to see which ones work/work best they have to try them on a significant number of people.
i wish the boko haram would catch the virus.
then we will sit back and celebrate while ebola does its work.
Unfortunately, Ebola isn’t that discriminating. 🙁
If the number of cases is declining, then it is less likely that anyone who is vaccinated would actually come in contact with anyone contagious.
It’s still encouraging that the number of new cases is declining.
I think the declining number is good news, but I can see why the vaccine makers want to do their tests before the next surge/outbreak.
and then there is the “development and research fees” that need to be recouped by the profits that said drug company needs – okay that is cynical – but most of these so called humanitarian causes want a large amount of “something in return” IMHO
In fairness, it does cost a lot to test vaccines and other drugs. And not all of the pharmaceuticals pass all the tests. Presumably the organizations/governments buying the vaccines will negotiate a fair price.