Author Topic: Ebola (non political)  (Read 2485 times)

Offline Brooke

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #45 on: November 11, 2014, 06:23:33 PM »
I think that there will be at least two Ebola vaccines soon, but by "soon" it means several more months of small-scale testing, then will come the daunting task of vaccinating large numbers of Africans.

One is from Newlink (who acquired it from the Public Health Agency of Canada that developed it and already tested it in primates) and the other is from Glaxo.  Those are the two that are farthest along and soonest to be out (if they work).  Also, J&J and several other companies are working on vaccines as well.

Offline perdue3

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #46 on: November 11, 2014, 06:54:15 PM »
With our beer supply threatened this is truly becoming dire.

Not mine, my beer comes from Germany and the Netherlands.
C.O. Kommando Nowotny 

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Offline Delirium

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #47 on: November 11, 2014, 07:16:16 PM »
I think that there will be at least two Ebola vaccines soon, but by "soon" it means several more months of small-scale testing

What leads you to this conclusion?

edit: Allow me to rephrase that. How effective do you think a vaccine will be against a RNA virus? Even the flu vaccine is only effective between 50%-80% (depending on sources and the year) of the strains it has been engineered to defeat. Ebola will never be eradicated like Small Pox, no vaccine will ever defeat it as we must defeat it at the source.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2014, 07:28:32 PM by Delirium »
Delirium
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Offline Brooke

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #48 on: November 11, 2014, 11:03:29 PM »
What leads you to this conclusion?

edit: Allow me to rephrase that. How effective do you think a vaccine will be against a RNA virus? Even the flu vaccine is only effective between 50%-80% (depending on sources and the year) of the strains it has been engineered to defeat. Ebola will never be eradicated like Small Pox, no vaccine will ever defeat it as we must defeat it at the source.

It depends on what mutates and if there are accessible conserved regions to the genome or proteins that are necessary for Ebola to function that can't be mutated, or the virus won't be viable anymore.  My understanding is that, while Ebola mutates a lot, there are still conserved things to go after.  We will get indications if either of the two leading candidates is effective probably within 6-12 months.  They are already starting to pass Phase 1 human-safety tests.  Next is to keep vaccinating people and do statistics on how many of them vs. unvaccinated people end up getting Ebola.

There might be a universal vaccine for flu one day, too.  Currently, folks go after hemagglutinin, which is highly variable, but accessible.  Folks could instead perhaps go for regions that are more conserved or perhaps conserved proteins on the surface of infected cells.

Offline rogwar

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #49 on: November 12, 2014, 09:23:59 AM »
So with the Ebola epidemic running rampant in the USA, how has it affected your everyday lives?

Offline Arlo

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Re: Ebola (non political)
« Reply #50 on: November 12, 2014, 09:28:38 AM »
So with the Ebola epidemic running rampant in the USA, how has it affected your everyday lives?

Lucky for you and me, DFW is currently considered Ebola free. I still wear my hazmat suit to Krogers, though.