The first batch of an experimental Ebola vaccine has been shipped to West Africa, destined to help protect 30,000 people in Liberia.
The shipment, of an initial 300 vials of the vaccine, marks the first to arrive in one of the three countries worst affected by the Ebola epidemic.
The drug will form the basis of the first large-scale vaccine trial, with healthcare workers on the front line treating Ebola patients, among the first to receive the drug.
It comes as the World Health Organisation said this week, the epidemic is showing signs of waning.
But after ravaging three West African nations and spreading fear from Dallas to Madrid, it has hammered home the message that the world needs a better detective system for emerging diseases.
Researchers hope to enrol up to 30,000 people to take part in the trial, a third of whom will get the vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline.
The drug is currently being tested in five small phase one safety trials in Britain, the US, Switzerland and Mali and involving around 200 volunteers.
Moncef Slaoui, GSKs global vaccines chief, said: 'The initial phase I data are encouraging and give us confidence to progress to the next phases of clinical testing, which will involve the vaccination of thousands of volunteers, including front line healthcare workers.'
The drug uses a type of chimpanzee cold virus to deliver safe genetic material from the Zaire strain of Ebola, the strain responsible for the unprecedented epidemic in West Africa.
Data so far show 'an acceptable safety profile' including in a West African population and across a range of dose levels, GSK said, adding it had now selected the most appropriate dosage for the Liberia trial.
The World Health Organisation yesterday said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa appears to be waning but cautioned against complacency in an epidemic that has seen 21,724 cases reported in nine countries since it started in Guinea a year ago
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