Mer­ck’s Ebo­la vac­cine promis­es to stop the next out­break in its tracks

The last Ebo­la out­break end­ed months ago. But it will be back, and next time there will be an ef­fec­tive vac­cine to halt the virus be­fore it can spread. The vac­cine is Mer­ck’s rVSV-ZE­BOV, which proved to be 100% ef­fec­tive in block­ing out­breaks.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors test­ed the vac­cine in what was called a clus­ter-ran­dom­ized ring vac­ci­na­tion tri­al, vac­ci­nat­ing every­one who may have come in con­tact with a vic­tim. The re­searchers, re­port­ing in The Lancet, con­clud­ed: “The re­sults add weight to the in­ter­im as­sess­ment that rVSV-ZE­BOV of­fers sub­stan­tial pro­tec­tion against Ebo­la virus dis­ease, with no cas­es among vac­ci­nat­ed in­di­vid­u­als from day 10 af­ter vac­ci­na­tion in both ran­domised and non-ran­domised clus­ters.”

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER