For humans, that is. As of time of writing there’s no known vaccine or cure for Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Googling, apparently Canada is leading the charge on researching the vaccine and is just starting clinical trials in humans with results expected in December. According to the CDC something called ZMapp is the closest we have to a treatment, but it’s not even begun trials in humans yet.
Assuming it doesn’t wipe out humanity, is there any reason that the virus would be particularly hard to vaccinate against or find a cure for?
There are several major efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. The Canadians, Americans, and the Russians all have vaccines in development within initial trials having already begun.
So long as the outbreak continues there will likely be expedited trials of several vaccines taking place simultaneously.
As to a cure…
Ebola is a RNA virus but unlike HIV and many other RNA viruses the Ebola virus does not reply on reverse transcriptase to integrate its genes into the host’s cells. That means that some of the medications that have proven useful in HIV treatment are not useful in Ebola. In short, a search for an Ebola cure cannot build as much upon prior research for other conditions.
Sorry but my computer is futzing up at the moment and I can’t open any of the search hits grrr… intellectual property dispute ebola - Google Search
Is this the case? Is an intellectual property dispute slowing down Canada’s effort? or just another pile of internet crap
Without seeing details of the contract between the Canadian government and NewLink Genetics it is hard to know. And, as the CBC article indicates, those contracts are confidential.
The US government, on the other hand, has a co-development arrangement with another Canadian company Tekmira Pharmaceuticals for a non-vaccine treatment for Ebola. The USAMRIID was using a Tekmira proprietary process to develop a siRNA treatment. The US FDA has given this treatment a fast track approval.
Phase I clinical trial of the Tekmira siRNA treatment began in January 2014. The initial part of phase I trial (single dose to healthy adult) is complete, but some concerns have required some adjustments prior to the next part of phase I trials (multiple doses to healthy adults). Nevertheless, given the urgency of the current outbreak the FDA has approved human trials in ill patients. Tekmira is providing its treatment through the WHO as part of a coordinated study of potential treatments and vaccines.
Tekmira’s siRNA treatment is a rather new approach. It involves customizing short fragments of RNA that are designed to interfere with viral RNA (Ebola is an RNA virus). This so-called RNAi for (RNA interference) strategy relies upon the gene sequencing work that researchers have already been doing throughout this outbreak so that the treatment siRNA fragments are adapted to the most recent known mutations of the virus.