Swiss authorities have approved the testing of an experimental Ebola vaccine, as part of an international response to the epidemic in West Africa that has claimed almost 5,000 lives.
On Tuesday, Swiss medical authorities said the trial will be held at Lausanne University Hospital and involve 120 healthy volunteers who will receive the experimental vaccine. The volunteers are all health-care workers who will work on medical teams in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, known by the shorthand Swissmedic, said the application for the trial “was handled as a priority given the dimensions of the Ebola epidemic.” The application was submitted last month.
The Lausanne trial, which has the backing of the World Health Organization, comes as health authorities around the world grow increasingly alarmed about the outbreak, which has spread to eight countries, including the U.S. and Spain. Reported cases of the Ebola virus disease have topped 10,000.
Health-care workers are at particular risk from contracting the virus, which is transmitted through an affected person’s bodily fluids.
The Lausanne vaccine is based on a modified chimpanzee virus, and the trial will test its safety and ability to provide an immune response to the Ebola disease, Swissmedic said.
Other trials are currently under way in the U.S., U.K. and Mali, and an application for a second trial in Switzerland was submitted earlier this month.
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