An Ebola vaccine trial has been started in Sierra Leone, one of the worst-hit countries in West Africa. Local officials say the trial "may help to prevent future cases." Partnering with the US, Sierra Leone began enrolling and vaccinating volunteers on Tuesday. The trial is to be conducted in the areas heavily affected in the past few months, such as the capital Freetown.
About six-thousand health and other frontline workers will be enrolled to assess the efficacy of the vaccine. The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine was developed by Canada and licensed to US company NewLink Genetics. It has been studied in over 800 people in Africa, Canada, Europe and the US, with promising early results. So far, clinical trials for candidate Ebola vaccines are in various phases, but no vaccines have been licensed for use in humans.