Dive Brief:
- A total of 10,000 at-risk people in Guinea will be vaccinated with VSV-EBOV, a jointly developed Ebola prevention vaccine from NewLink Genetics and Merck.
- All of the participants in the trial are volunteers, and everyone will receive the vaccine. There is no placebo arm. Participants are considered at risk if they are part of a community where there is an Ebola-infected person.
- Guinea is one of the countries that has been hardest hit by the Ebola virus, with a total of 3,429 infected individuals, including the 2,263 who have died.
Dive Insight:
The driving concept behind this vaccination study's structure is the "ring vaccination" strategy. If a person is infected with Ebola, a group, also known as a "ring," of their contacts will be vaccinated.
Over the next six to eight weeks, a total of 10,000 people across 190 rings will be vaccinated. Results are expected starting in July.