Md. Lab Tests Ebola Vaccine

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WJZ) -- It's a word and disease that has sparked fear in many people around the world.

Marcus Washington gives us a behind the scenes look at one of the few places testing a vaccine to protect humans from the deadly disease.

At the Walter Reed Army Institute in Silver Spring, tests are being done to find an Ebola vaccine.

This lab is just one of many battlefields around the world looking for ways to fight a deadly global disease.

A virus that normally affects animals is being used by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to help the human body fight Ebola.

For confidentiality reasons, we can't go into all the labs, but we do know there are at least four labs on the annex.

"So they have taken this particular virus and they have taken a small part of that virus out and they have put a small part of Ebola virus in so that when we give this immunization, the virus replicates and it puts the Ebola coat on it," said Col. Shon Remoch.

Tricking the body's immune system into thinking it is fighting off Ebola---in return, building strength to recognize the bug and fight it off if ever faced with the actual disease.

"So I mentioned this is a safety trial so a lot of the information that we get from the safety trial, clinically, we'll be following fevers, headaches and those types of things," said Remoch.

The 39 people taking part in the clinical trial at the annex of Ft. Detrick are broken up into three groups. Each group gets different doses and will all be monitored for the next 180 days.

You cannot catch Ebola from the vaccine.

"The Ebola virus has to have a lot of components to replicate and to infect; it doesn't have any one of that, just one small portion of it, so it's impossible for it to replicate with this particular vaccine," said Remoch.

Phase one of the clinical trial will look at two things: safety and how will the immune system respond to the vaccine. What it will not tell us is if the body will protect itself from the Ebola disease.

There are three phases a vaccine will have to pass before becoming available on the market for use. All three phases usually take up to 15 years but health officials are compressing that time to try to find an effective treatment quickly.

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