Makerere University Walter Reed Project has started screening candidates for the trial of an experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus in Uganda. A total of 90 candidates will be enlisted for the clinical trial that is intended to determine whether a new experimental vaccine can provoke immune response against Ebola.
Recruitment of Ugandan volunteers for the trial is being done at the head offices of the Makerere University Walter Reed Project at plot 42, Nakasero in Kampala.
Addressing journalists on Friday, Dr. Hannah Kibuuka, the director of Makerere University Walter Reed Project said vaccination of the volunteers would start early February.
“We have started screening candidates and providing information about the study to those who are willing to take part in it,” Kibuuka stated.
She said the first phase of the trial will enable researchers to understand how safe and well-tolerated the vaccines are in healthy Ugandan adults.
The vaccine dubbed ‘chimp adenovirus type 3’ was developed by scientists at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a UK-based drugs manufacturer.
Each volunteer will receive an injection of the experimental drug
Simultaneous trials of the chimp adenovirus type 3 vaccine commenced in September 2014 in Oxford and Bethesda, in addition to another trial in Mali.
The vaccine was designed to provoke an immune response against the Zaire and Sudan strains. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst in history, is linked to the Ebola Zaire strain.
Two versions of the experimental vaccine to the candidates, with one group receiving vaccine to code for the Ebola Zaire strain while another gets one for the Sudan strain.
Dr Francis Kiweera, the head of research and scientific affairs at Makerere University Walter Reed Project said the volunteers would be monitored for one year.
“Each volunteer who has been cleared for the study will be given a single injection and monitored for 48 weeks,” he explained.
Candidates must be between 18 and 65 years, be in good health and declare willingness to take part in the trial by signing a consent form.
Of the 90 candidates, 30 volunteers will be those who participated in an earlier clinical trial of experimental DNA vaccines against Ebola and Marburg in Uganda between 2009 and 2010.
The results of the trial, published in the journal Lancet, showed that the vaccines are safe for use in humans and provoke immune response in more than half of the 108 volunteers.
The study discovered that the vaccines for Marburg and Ebola can be given concurrently without harm to humans.
The results have raised hope of finding a potent vaccine for Ebola virus disease that has claimed at least 9,400 lives according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Dr Kibuuka explained that the clinical trials raise the possibility of developing preventive vaccines for use by health workers or potent vaccines to deal with outbreaks.
Ebola viruses cause internal bleeding at multiple sites with patients usually dying as a result of multiple organ failure.
The New Vision
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