Effective Ebola Vaccine Developed

Tests show new Ebola vaccine is 'highly effective'

Results of early tests of a new vaccine for Ebola shows it to be "highly effective," quickly protecting 100% of people against the virus, the World Health Organization said Friday. . . The vaccine took effect within 10 days of vaccination, according to the study, published in The Lancet. that could make the vaccine very useful in an outbreak, Osterholm said.

"This is an extremely promising development," said Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO. "The credit goes to the Guinean government, the people living in the communities and our partners in this project. An effective vaccine will be another very important tool for both current and future Ebola outbreaks."

Since late 2013, when the latest epidemic began in West Africa, there have been 27,600 Ebola cases, including more than 11,000 deaths. Liberia has suffered the worst, with more than 4,800 deaths, although the epidemic there has been better contained than in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Which is not an exceptionally big toll by the standards of infectious diseases, but given its deadliness, and the nature of its transmission, it's still a pretty scary disease.

While doctors cheered the decline of the epidemic, they also worried that the falling number of cases would make it impossible to tell if vaccines were actually working, Osterholm said. He praised everyone involved in the current study for persevering under difficult circumstances.

Which is not the worst problem to have. What concerns me is that Canada beat us to it. . .

The vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

What does Canada have that we don't?