Idea for Ebola Vaccine
dsalas at ucsd.edu
Wed Jul 26 04:37:27 EST 1995
In article <3v40i0$o2b at grape.epix.net>, Dave Peters <dpeters> wrote:
> I've been wondering....
> Could the Reston form of Ebola somehow be the key to a vaccine for the
> deadly Ebola Zaire virus? Edward Jenner used the cowpox virus to make a
> vaccine for the similar smallpox virus. Could the Reston form of Ebola
> that does not affect humans somehow be used to vaccinate people against
> Ebola Zaire? Please post your comments.
Based on the high infectivity rate and fast turnover of Ebola Zaire, I
wonder if the immune system could mount an adequate defense even if
antibodies were present from a vaccine. You'd need a huge titer of
antibodies to combat the huge number of viral particles. Plus the window
between infection and detection is only a few days, and then detection to
death isn't much faster. Containment and avoidance have been the best
defenses so far.
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