NIAID and West Africa Partners Announce Initial Results from Ebola Clinical Trials

Investigators from the Liberia-U.S. clinical research partnership known as PREVAIL (Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia) and their research partners in Sierra Leone and Guinea presented findings from three separate clinical trials on Feb. 23rd at the 23rd Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

PREVAIL 1 (a Phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial examining the cAd3-EBOZ and rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine candidates) initial results indicate the two investigational vaccines designed to protect against Ebola virus disease were well-tolerated and induced an immune response among 1,000 vaccinated participants.

PREVAIL 2 (a randomized, controlled trial of the experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp) initial results indicate the monoclonal antibody cocktail was well-tolerated and showed promise. Due to decreasing incidence in Ebola, the study could not enroll enough volunteers to determine definitively whether it is a better treatment for Ebola virus disease than supportive care only.

PREVAIL 3 (a natural history study of Ebola virus disease survivors and their close contacts) initial results indicate that both Ebola survivors and their close contacts have a high burden of illness. However, the prevalence of eye, musculoskeletal, and neurological complications was greater among the individuals who survived Ebola virus disease.