Ebola Vaccine, medical study, Canada

Ebola is making headlines around the world, and Canadians can be proud of a recent Ebola vaccine testing in Winnipeg, Canada, that has cured monkeys of this virus. The medical study showed that 18 of the monkeys who received the experimental Ebola vaccine were cured of their viral infection, although it is still too soon to know whether the same results can be achieved in human subjects. Researchers caution that the Zmapp vaccine for Ebola is still highly experimental, however it was recently used on 7 people who were infected with the Ebola virus. Two of these individuals were the American aid workers who were working overseas and contracted the disease while helping others, and both of these people have recovered an dare doing well now.

The medical study which was published in the medical journal Nature shows that Public Health Agency of Canada researchers partnered with US researchers, and this collaboration started back in 2011. The research group had the goal of creating an effective cocktail of antibodies that could effectively fight off the Ebola virus, and the results are the Zmapp Ebola vaccine. According to researcher Gary Kobinger “What’s quite remarkable to us is that we could rescue animals that were quite advanced. The level of improvement was beyond my own expectations.” There have been previous drugs which could be considered an Ebola vaccine with a cure rate of 100% but these must be given within 1 hour of the viral infection, and that does not leave much time. The newest Ebola vaccine that Canada partnered with the USA to create is highly effective even when the viral infection has been incubating for several days an dthe test monkeys showed symptoms of Ebola.