An official for the World Health Organization announced Tuesday that experimental Ebola vaccines — in as many as tens of thousands of doses — could be ready for testing in January.
Assistant Director General for the WHO Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, said that the "real-world" testing could begin after clinical trials in Africa, Europe, and the United States. Data from at least two of the vaccines, one of which is now in clinical trials, is expected by December. Kieny clarified that the volunteers who participate in the vaccines' testing could not contract Ebola from the trials.
The WHO's most recent estimate says that the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 4,500 people, primarily in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The U.N.'s emergency Ebola committee will meet in Geneva later this week to determine additional courses of action for controlling the current outbreak.