Marburg Vaccine Effective on Infected Monkeys, page 1

The Marburg disease is one of the deadliest viral infections known to man, it is similar to the Ebola virus. In a breakthrough discovery, the researchers administered a new vaccine to the lab animals after they were infected, and all of them survived

www.nytimes.com
For the first time, an experimental vaccine against the deadly Marburg virus has been shown to work in monkeys even if the shot is not given until after the animals have been infected.

The virus, closely related to Ebola, causes fever and severe hemorrhaging and can be fatal within a week. Epidemics of the disease have occurred in Angola and elsewhere in Africa.

"Quite honestly, we were astonished," said Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert, a senior virologist at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., and an author of a study being published online today by The Lancet, a medical journal. "We never thought it would work that well for something acute like Marburg, where the infection happens so fast that you don't have time to intervene."

Not all vaccines are effective after a person or animal has been exposed to a virus; the ones that are include those for smallpox and rabies.

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Aside from the admiration that is due to the scientists, it's also good to know that the Marburg and Ebola might be obsoleted as potential bio weapons if the new vaccine is successfully produced and stockpiled. All in all, it appears to be an all-positive news.