A scientist working with the deadly Ebola virus at the Bernard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany may have been infected when she accidentally pricked her finger with a needle used to inject the virus into mice. After an international telephone conference and less than a day an experimental Canadian-made vaccine had arrived in Berlin. The as of yet unidentified 45-year-old woman was injected with the vaccine within 40 hours of he March 12 accident.
According to Dr. Heinz Feldmann, former head of the special pathogens unit at the Winnipeg lab:
It was a tremendous response on the Winnipeg side to get that out the same day and get it over and get this delivered. She got immunized within 40 hours after exposure. And considering that this had to be shipped across the Atlantic, I think that’s quite an achievement.
At 12 hours after injection, the woman’s fever spiked, she also experienced headache and muscle pain, all of which were likely a response to the vaccine rather than a symptom of infection, as the symptoms quickly subsided. At present she remains asymptomatic and the peak infection period has passed; however, it should be noted that the incubation period of the virus is from 4-21 days.
When injected into monkeys the Canadian-made vaccine 4 of 8 monkeys injected with a lethal dose of Ebola at 30 minutes after exposure survived. The vaccine had a greater effect on mice and guinea pigs, protecting 100% and 66% of the infected animals, respectively. When the vaccine was administered 24 hours after exposure, approximately 50% of infected guinea pigs survived.
Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever that can cause uncontrollable internal bleeding. Depending on the strain, up to 90 people infected with the virus die. Early stages of infection are marked by flu-like symptoms, which quickly progress to bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Some victims begin bleeding through the nose, mouth and eyes a few days after infection. While there is no cure for Ebola, supportive therapies have been shown to have some positive effect on survivability. [AOL, CBC.ca via Total Fark]
