The Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia, known as PREVAIL, announced this month the expansion of the Ebola vaccine study at Redemption Hospital in Monrovia.
The study will assess three different vaccine strategies in an effort to find which show the most promise to prevent or quickly control future Ebola outbreaks. It is a continuation of a previous vaccine effort that began in Liberia in February 2015.
The start of the expansion of the Ebola vaccine study in Liberia announced on April 3rd follows a similar effort of the multi-country study, which started in Guinea on March 27, 2017. An extension of the study in Sierra Leone is being planned.
This is the first large-scale clinical study being coordinated by the international Partnership for Research on Ebola VACcination, or PREVAC. The study originated with the West African Clinical Research Consortium, established in 2015 by scientific leaders in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone to focus on research activities that could prevent or help respond to future Ebola outbreaks.
The PREVAIL group includes the West African Consortium and their international sponsors and partners: the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, sponsor for Guinea; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health sponsor for Liberia; and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, sponsor of the planned extension in Sierra Leone, a collaboration with the University of Sierra Leone’s College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences. Another PREVAIL consortium partner is the non-governmental organization Alliance for International Medical Action in Guinea.
The study, which in Liberia will be called PREVAIL V, will be conducted in two parts. The first part, called PREVAC and now underway in Guinea and Liberia, will enroll up to 600 people 12 years and older. The second part, expected to start in the second half of 2017, aims to enroll 4,900 people, including 3,500 healthy men and women aged 18 years and older and 1,400 children over one year old.
The United States is proud to work with Liberia and other international partners to combat the deadly threat posed by Ebola to the people of Liberia and the region.
