Ebola vaccine is safe, researchers say

Miami: Preliminary results from a clinical trial on an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health suggest it is safe for use, researchers said Wednesday.

The vaccine also generates an immune response to Ebola, said the early findings from the trial under way at Oxford University, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The vaccine was well tolerated. Its safety profile is pretty much as we had hoped," said Adrian Hill who led the trial at Oxford University.

The results are based on 60 healthy volunteers who were vaccinated between September and November.

All three doses studied were judged safe. The participants are to be followed for six months after the injection to see if any side effects occur.

The vaccine does not contain infectious Ebola virus, so it cannot cause a person who is vaccinated to get sick from Ebola.

"People typically experienced mild symptoms that lasted for one or maybe two days, such as pain or reddening at the injection site, and occasionally people felt feverish," said Hill.

"It´s very similar to what has been seen in previous studies with this general type of vaccine." (AFP)