Ebola Vaccine Tested in African Adults

Two experimental vaccines against Ebola and Marburg viruses are safe and produced an immune response in adults in Uganda, a new study finds. This is the first time these vaccines were tested in Africa. Earlier this year, similar results were reported in healthy U.S. adults. Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases developed the vaccines. In the study, 108 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 50 were randomly divided into four groups. One group got placebo injections. The other three groups got the Ebola vaccine, Marburg vaccine or both vaccines. The injections were given over eight weeks. Researchers followed the participants for two years. They found antibodies against the strain of the Ebola virus that caused the outbreak in West Africa in 17 of the people who got the Ebola vaccine alone and in 14 people who got both vaccines.