BRUSSELS, November 5 (RIA Novosti) – Vaccines against the Ebola virus are already being extensively tested and may be used as early as January 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab said Wednesday.
"Now for the Ebola, two vaccine candidates are on the development… and five candidate vaccines are on the initial consideration. The two vaccines are now both being tested on humans through extraordinary fastened procedures for efficacy and safety under WHO coordination," Jakab said during the environment committee briefing held in the European Parliament.
"Pending everything going well, we might be able to start using the vaccines in the affected countries in January 2015," she added.
Russia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom are among the countries currently working on Ebola vaccines.
According to the WHO, around 5,000 out of the total 13,703 reported Ebola infection cases have been fatal. The West African nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone carry the highest death toll, accounting for most cases.
