Ebola vaccine

The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. Ebola virus disease (EVD) known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with:

• Blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died from Ebola
• Objects that have been contaminated with body fluids (like blood, feces, vomit) from a person sick with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola

Symptoms of EVD can be sudden and include:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore throat

This is followed by:

• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Rash
• Symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function
• In some cases, both internal and external bleeding (for example, oozing from the gums, or blood in the stools).
• Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival.

Vaccine: 

Merck & Co’s Ebola vaccine Ervebo has been cleared for marketing in the US, just weeks after getting a world-first regulatory approval in Europe.Prior to the FDA and EMA approvals Ervebo had already been approved for use in emergencies by the WHO, based on trials conducted during that epidemic which suggested it had a protective efficacy rate of 93%.