EBOLA: AS CASE NUMBERS FALL, VACCINE TRIALS MAY NOT YIELD SUFFICIENT DATA ON EFFICACY-WHO

World Health Organisation (WHO) at a news briefing in Geneva through its Director General on Health Systems and Innovations, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny has said that the two experimental Ebola vaccines developed by GSK (Glaxo SmithKline) and jointly by Merck and Newlink Genetics being tested on volunteers may not yield sufficient data on efficacy as case numbers fall.
The vaccines have been proven to be safe. "It is not clear whether it will be possible to have even a hint of efficacy from these two vaccines. To have efficacy we must see if people are actually protected , as the number of cases is going down it is not clear whether there will be a strong robust answer to this question", Kieny said.
"Two  drugs Zmapp made by Zmapp Pharmaceuticals and sIRNA  by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals are also being tested and it is hoped that they will produce some limited results on efficacy" Kieny also said.
Liberia was declared Ebola free on Saturday after 42 days of no new cases.
Guinea reported 7 cases for the week ended May 4-10 while Sierra Leone reported 2.