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Should we stop looking for a H.I.V. vaccine and instead focus on prevention through education?
The second round of testing on humans starting next week with 20 - 50 volunteers.
Dr. Hannah Kibuuka, the director clinical programmes at the Makerere University Water Reed project, conducting the experiments has told journalists that the trails contain no ebola virus and are are expected to last for a research period of two years.
Ebola and marburg are very infectious viral diseases that cause both internal and external bleeding that lead to death in less than seven hours after infection.
Uganda is the only country participating in the second trial (phase1B). This phase is aimed at assessing both the safety of the vaccine and immune responses generated by the recepients.
Unlike HIV trials, volunteers will not be exposed to the ebola or marburg virus. When proven successful, the vaccine will be administered to health workers, tourists, military personnel where these infections are bound to break out.
Just recently, thousands of bats living in a cave in Uganda have been confirmed to be natural reserviors for the deadly marburg virus, after tests by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control.
A breakthrough of this vaccine would lay to rest public fears of a massive outbreak of disease that could potentially wipe out thousands of people instantly.
