Diluted, Effective Ebola Vaccine Could Help Supplies Stretch Farther

A single dose of a highly diluted VSV-Ebola virus vaccine—approximately one-millionth of what is in the vaccine being used to help control the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—remains fully protective against disease in experimentally infected monkeys, according to NIAID scientists. The study appears in Lancet’s EBioMedicine. Nearly 250,000 people have received the investigational vaccine since August 2018 as part of a “ring vaccination” program to help stem the DRC outbreak. The vaccine appears to be safe and highly effective, but the continued need to vaccinate people in the DRC and surrounding countries makes vaccine shortages a concern. Further dose reduction is a possible solution.