In Africa, a Decline in New Ebola Cases Complicates Vaccine Development

NEW YORK TIMES      by Andrew Pollack                                                           Jan. 9, 2015

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.

Dr. Rees, a professor and viral disease expert at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, led a meeting on Thursday of public health officials, pharmaceutical executives and others to discuss the plans for testing vaccines in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny of the World Health Organization, speaking Friday in Geneva, said it could take up to six months to determine if vaccines work. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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