As the number of cases in the biggest ever Marburg virus outbreak, in Angola, passed 400, researchers at the Canadian National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba, reported on Sunday that they have developed the first vaccine able to protect monkeys from the virus.
The team made the vaccine by replacing the surface protein on the virus that causes vesicular stomatitis, a rare human disease, with surface proteins from Marburg. If surface proteins from Ebola are used instead, the virus protects monkeys against Ebola, though it is not the first vaccine to do this (Nature Medicine, DOI: 1038/nm1258).
Such vaccines might help contain future outbreaks of Marburg or Ebola, but the fact that they are live, genetically modified viruses might make approval difficult. Only one such vaccine has ever been approved: an animal vaccine for rabies.
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One of the vaccines鈥� creators, Steve Jones, thinks this will not be a problem as long as it can be shown that the altered viruses cannot cause disease. Because Ebola and Marburg are rare, the vaccines are likely to be given only to contacts of patients and healthcare workers during outbreaks. However, developing the vaccines will rely on biodefence funding, Jones says.
