PREVAIL enrolls 46 volunteers

The Partnership for Research on the Ebola Vaccine Study in Liberia or PREVAIL discloses here that the institution has enrolled additional 46 volunteers in phase five of its study.

PREVAIL Co-lead on social mobilization and communication, Mr. Bartholomew Wilson, told reporters on Thursday, April 27, at the Ministry of Information’s regular press briefing in Monrovia that the institution’s presence in Liberia is as a result of the many lives that were lost during the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, which affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone .

He said in order to establish the cause of the outbreak, a West African Regional Consortium was formulated to share technology and collaborate efforts to develop a vaccine and therapeutics for Ebola.

Mr. Wilson discloses that on the 1st of April, PREVAIL started a vaccine study to assess three different vaccine tests and to find out which shows the most promise to prevent or quickly control future Ebola outbreaks in the sub-region, saying “This is an expansion of the vaccine study which started in February of 2015.”

The Co-lead on social mobilization details that another reason for the study is to assess the safety and ability of each of three different Ebola vaccine strategies to stimulate an immune response to the virus that may be protective.

He notes that the key goals of the study are to determine how quickly immune response to the vaccine is generated, how strong the immune response is, and how long it lasts. According to him, the study will also continue to monitor the safety of the test vaccine in adults and carefully tests their safety record in children, a population particularly vulnerable to Ebola.

Mr. Wilson says to be eligible for the study, volunteers are required to first complete the intake process, which includes a rigorous information session, sign an informed consent, and a review of each individuals medical history, and that participants may withdraw at will.

By Lewis S. Teh-Editing by Jonathan Browne