The Conversation —The Ebola virus devastated west Africa in 2014, claiming over 11,000 lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. It was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus had first been discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. Ebola is a terrifying virus which, if left untreated, causes bleeding inside the body and through the eyes, nose, mouth and rectum. As a biologist and epidemiologist, I travelled to Guinea amid the chaos to coordinate the laboratory activities of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine trials. Clinical trials have shown its efficacy exceeds 95% in preventing infection from the Zaire Ebola virus strain, the deadliest variant.

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Persons: Médecins, Dr, Sanjay Gupta Organizations: CNN, Democratic, World Health Organization, Sierra, Merck, CNN Health, and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, African Medicines Agency, RFK Jr Locations: Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zaire, United States, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda