By Kemo Cham & Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Sierra Leone will commence the long talked about trial of Ebola vaccine next month.
The trial dubbed the Sierra Leone Ebola Vaccine Evaluation Study (SLEVES) will be carried out as collaboration between the University of Sierra Leone (USL), the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), and the United States Centers for Diseases Control (CDC), which is funding it.
The West African Ebola epidemic which erupted early last year has claimed nearly 10, 000 lives, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.
Currently, the only seeming solution to the highly fatal hemorrhagic fever disease is supportive treatment. Scientists have however been scrambling for a more permanent solution, like a tested and approved cure or vaccine. Vaccines prevent infection, which makes them the best option. But developing them involves a tedious process.
Dr Mohamed Hindolo Samai, head of the pharmacology department at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), who is coordinating the programme on behalf of the USL, said at a special press briefing Tuesday that the study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.
6000 participants, mainly health workers, will be enrolled and on voluntary basis, he said. They will include doctors, ambulance drivers and Ebola frontline workers highly vulnerable to the disease by virtue of their exposure to people sick with the viral infection, he added.
“Eligible health workers will be given the opportunity to take the vaccine being studied because their job puts them at higher risk of contracting the Ebola Virus,” Dr Samai said.
In a power point presentation, Dr Samai explained the processes involved in developing a vaccine and having it approved for trial and eventual deployment.
There are several known candidate vaccines in development stage. But just about three are best known. The rVSV ZEBOV Vaccine, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, is just one of them.
There have been several trials of other vaccines in a number of countries, including in neighboring Liberia, which was set to commence its trial this month.
In Sierra Leone, it is anticipated that the trial will commence between the first and second week of March. Four districts - Bombali, Portloko, Tonkolili and the entire Western Area - are being targeted, partly because they are the hardest hit by the epidemic. The trial is coming amidst reports of a fresh outbreak in the Aberdeen community.
But the study has only been so far approved by the Sierra Leone Ethics and Scientific Review Committee, and officials say relevant authorities like the office of the President and parliament have been duly informed. But equally important approvals were pending from the Sierra Leone Pharmacy Board, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the CDC Institutional Review Board.
“These approvals are expected in the next few weeks,” said Dr Samai.
But ahead of commencement of the trial, officials are anticipating obstacles in the form skepticism, which had already been expressed, including by some parliamentarians. The concerns include side effect associated with the vaccine, but also whether or not it can`t infect participants with the very virus it is meant to protect them against.
All these were dismissed by health ministry officials who said the rVSV EBOV Vaccine has already been tested with no reported adverse side effects.
“The virus has been tested in non-human primates in places that had experienced Ebola outbreaks and all of them survived and were immune from the Ebola virus attack while those who never received the vaccine died,” said Dr Samai.
Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University Sierra Leone, Professor Ekundayo Thompson, said the Ebola Vaccine study was crucial given the fact that it will help save lives especially among health workers.
“The country has lost 12 medical doctors and all of them are from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences,” he said, adding that the prevailing situation had compelled the University to think on how to bring in foreign doctors to fill in the vacuum left by their fallen colleagues.
Professor Thompson also revealed that he’d approached the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Association of African Universities, as well as the Ministry of Education to train more doctors, noting however that it takes a long time to train doctors.
Dr Daniel Feikin of the CDC assured that every step of the scientific process involved in vaccine trials be followed, in response to concerns over the short time this trial on the rVSV ZEBOV is expected to last for.
© Politico 19/02/15
