Abstract
(Englisch)
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Ebola virus (EBOV), a member of Filoviridae family of viruses, is one of the most dangerous microorganisms in the world, causing severe hemorrhagic fevers in humans and non-human primates with high case fatality. Since its discovery in 1976, five different Ebola virus species have been isolated and over 20 sporadic EBOV outbreaks have occurred, mostly confined to rural areas in East and Central Africa. Hence the disease did not attract much global attention. However, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, caused by Ebola Zaire strain, gained widespread attention as it took a different pattern and has reached historic proportions, characterized by a rapid and larger spread beyond Africa, and a greater magnitude than all the other outbreaks combined, underscoring its serious threat to the public health. No vaccines or antiviral drugs currently approved for prevention or treatment of Ebola infections in humans. However, the severity of the recent Ebola outbreak and the potential risk of global spread, has spurred research for the rapid development of safe and effective preventive Ebola vaccine. Such a vaccine, that can rapidly induce strong and long-lasting protective immune responses against all main Ebola strains and that can be readily produce and deployed in the field, is needed to protect people in endemic regions in an event of an outbreak but also to protect healthcare workers caring for Ebola patients, who are at the highest risk of infection even before an outbreak can be identified.\n\nA number of EBOV vaccine candidates are under development and some have been shown to induce protective immune responses against lethal Ebola virus infection in different animal models, including non-human primates. In response to the recent Ebola outbreak, three main promising monovalent vector-based vaccines are being investigated in human clinical trials, demonstrating their safety and immunogenicity and the potential efficacy of a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus-based vaccine
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