September 5, 2014

expert reaction to the WHO consultation on potential Ebola therapies and vaccines

The World Heath Organisation published a consultation based on therapies and vaccines under development for the treatment of Ebola, highlighting the need for evaluation and allocation of treatments, alongside the prioritisation of patient care and health worker safety.

Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, University of Nottingham, said:

“These are unprecedented steps, borne out of an unprecedented outbreak.

“In the affected regions Ebolavirus infection is out of control. It’s reassuring to see that this latest consultation acknowledges the key importance of infection prevention and control and this, together with education and public engagement, should ultimately bring this outbreak to an end. But this statement also implicitly acknowledges that the major factor that will prevent this control is a lack of personnel and resources on the ground to care for the ill and to trace and monitor their contacts.

“Ebolavirus has wreaked a significant toll on healthcare workers, yet without them this outbreak will continue to rage almost uncontrollably. Therefore, it is understandable – if not a little contentious and potentially inflammatory – that the initial additional prevention and treatment efforts are directed at these key people. The added benefit of this focus is that it will be easier to coordinate their use and gather data on their safety and effectiveness.

“It’s too early to say whether the vaccines will work, but at least we will have some idea of their short-term safety, before they are used in the field.

“As for the use of blood serum from individuals who have recovered from Ebolavirus infection; whilst this might seem ghoulish, it does have historical precedence that dates back to the year when the virus was first described, and later uses suggest that it works.”

Prof Tom Solomon, Director of the UK’s Health Protection Research for Emerging Infections, based at the University of Liverpool, said:

“This is very encouraging news from the World Health Organisation. They have reviewed the vaccines and drugs in development, and established a framework by which they may be tested as speedily as possible.

“There is an urgent need to ensure proper testing in controlled trials, rather than just being given to patients in a haphazard manner, without anyone knowing whether or not they are really effective.”

Dr Ben Neuman, Lecturer in Virology, University of Reading, said:

“It is hard to know which, if any, of the potential Ebola-killing treatments will work best in sick people before they are tested, so it is good that the WHO is considering a wide range of options.  The list of treatments under consideration contains solutions for different problems – some could stop a person from becoming infected, and others are being considered to treat various stages of infection.

“One thing that all the drugs being considered to treat people who already have Ebola have in common is that they will have the best chance of working at the earliest stages of infection – typically within a day or two of first catching the virus.  Although the technology does exist to detect these very early signs of Ebola, it may not be available in all of the West African treatment facilities, meaning that many of the people who would receive the treatments will already be sick, and some may have to be treated beyond the time when the treatments are most likely to work.

“It is a difficult situation, and the WHO is doing its best to open up new treatment options for people with Ebola who would like to try them”.

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/ebola-outbreak/

Declared interests

None declared