Ebola Comment: vaccine trial our best hope but similar HIV trial failures suggest it is unlikely to work
Release Date 17 September 2014
With the trial of an experimental vaccine against Ebola beginning in Oxford today, Dr Ben Neuman, virologist from the University of Reading, discusses the chances of it protecting people against the deadly virus.
"There is clearly a need for this vaccine, but what is not clear is whether it will work well enough to protect someone from Ebola. This vaccine uses some of the best available technology to give the immune system a good long look at its target - a small but vitally important part of the virus.
"However we won't really be able to tell whether the vaccine works until it is tested on the ground in West Africa. Two trials with HIV vaccines that used very similar vaccine technology have recently failed, despite promising initial results.
"Volunteers who are getting the vaccine will almost certainly make a cocktail of sticky antibodies in response. Some antibodies like the ones in ZMapp can stop the virus, but there is evidence to suggest that other antibodies can actually make the disease worse."