The world is full of badness: disease, death and destruction. Sometimes it's hard to believe that good things happen - but they do! This book will be full of all the stuff we never get to see on the TV screens, all the happy news! Acts of kindness...
Many of you will be aware of the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in recent years that began in West Africa in December 2013, lasting until June 2016. During that time, it resulted in the deaths of over 11,300 people.
You may wondering why this is the beginning of a good news article, but so often, the light that dawns brightest comes after the darkest of days.
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In December of last year, the World Health Organisation released a report detailing the successes of a recently developed vaccine.
As new cases were diagnosed in Basse-Guinée during the outbreak, the 'contact points' (meaning anyone who may have contracted the disease, including family and friends) were identified, grouped together, then placed into one of two categories. One was given the experimental vaccine - designated rVSV-ZEBOV - immediately, and the other was given it after three weeks, to compare the incidence of contraction in the interim.
11,841 people took part in the experiment, of which 5837 were given the vaccine. The number of people who had contracted Ebola after ten days was counted. In the group of people who had not been vaccinated, 23 people had caught Ebola. In the group that had been vaccinated, no one did. NO ONE caught Ebola after having been vaccinated. The vaccine was found to be 100% effective.
There are two common strains of Ebola: Ebola-Sudan and Ebola-Naire. The vaccine only seems to be effective in preventing Ebola-Naire, and it is uncertain whether or not it gives long term immunity. However, it is still a highly effective defense against outbreaks.
Approximately half of the people who received the vaccination reported mild side effects of headaches, fatigue and muscle pain, most of which were gone after a few days. There were three cases of serious reactions probably caused by the vaccine, but considered against the scale of the trial, the vaccine has been heralded as a success!
It will continue to undergo testing but at the very least, the next time Ebola strikes we will have a weapon to fight back with. Three hundred thousand vaccines have been stockpiled and stored, ready and waiting.
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If you want to read the original report, you can find it here: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/ebola-vaccine-results/en/
