After US and Russia, China gets vaccine for Ebola virus

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China's top food and drug authority announced on Friday that it has approved the country's first vaccine for Ebola virus disease. It makes China the third country, after the United States and Russia, with vaccines available for use to combat the deadly infectious disease.

According to the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), the new vaccine is more stable compared to the liquid vaccines produced by the US and Russia.

Besides, it has advantages in transportation and uses in tropical areas such as Africa, where suffered the most due to the outbreak of Ebola virus. The terrible disease hit West Africa in 2014, causing at least 11,300 deaths, said the CFDA.

Medical staff members take part in an Ebola virus preventive drill at Ditan Hospital in Beijing. /Reuters Photo

The CFDA approved the application for clinical tests of the drug in February 2015. The drug was jointly developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing and CanSinoBio, a Chinese company specializing in vaccine development and production.

The success improves China's ability to prevent and control major public health threats, and provides new means for China to handle global disease epidemics effectively.

Medical staff in affected communities. /Reuters Photo

"It will promote the research and development of vaccines for major infectious diseases in China," the CFDA said. "It demonstrates a major advance in China's ability in the technological innovation of biomedicine."

According to Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor in Infectious Diseases Hub at Zhejiang University, the successful clinical tests conducted on African regions shows that the vaccine was “safe and effective."

Ebola virus /Reuters Photo

In fact, efforts to develop the Ebola vaccine started at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences more than seven years ago.

As a fatal illness, Ebola virus disease is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average mortality among those infected varies from 25 percent to 90 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency