A new vaccine against the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses has been successfully tested on monkeys, according to an international team of scientists quoted by the magazine Nature Medicine. The test model appeared “promising” for the development of future vaccines against the rapid-spreading viruses and could also be applied to other deadly viruses, the scientists said.Twelve macaques were used in the experiments, with six being vaccinated against Ebola and six against Marburg. The vaccine was administered with a single intra-muscular injection and caused no side-effects such as fever.Twenty-eight days after the vaccination the monkeys were subjected to a massive dose of Ebola or Marburg, according to the vaccine given. None of the animals showed any signs of the disease. However, none survived an injection of the virus from which it had not been protected.Ebola and Marburg belong to a family of viruses that cause haemorrhagic fever.
