Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says clinical trials are to start in September on an Ebola vaccine that has shown promising results during tests on animals.
“By the middle to end of 2015, we’ll be able to have some vaccine – at least to vaccinate health workers – who put themselves at considerable risk when they take care of these patients,” he told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
The US aid workers were treated with the ZMapp serum before their evacuation from Liberia.
According to a CNN report, quoting a doctor in Liberia, Dr Brantly’s condition improved dramatically within an hour of receiving the drug.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim: ”We have a responsibility to that particular region of Africa”
Service in Mission (SIM), the Christian aid group that employs Ms Writebol, says she has had two doses of the drug and did not respond as well as Dr Brantly but she is showing “improvement”.
“She is walking with assistance… strength is better… has an appetite,” SIM spokesman Palmer Holt told the Washington Post newspaper in an email on Monday.
Ms Writebol is on her way to a special isolation ward at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where Dr Kent Brantly is being treated by infectious disease specialists.
Three companies, the US government and the Public Health Agency of Canada are behind the experimental drug.
“ZMapp was first identified as a drug candidate in January 2014 and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans. As such, very little of the drug is currently available,” Mapp Biopharmaceutical said in a statement.
“Mapp and its partners are co-operating with appropriate government agencies to increase production as quickly as possible.”
Ebola has initial flu-like symptoms that can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
African leaders attending the first-ever US-Africa summit are expected to discuss the crisis in Washington.
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Fatality rate can reach 90% – but the current outbreak is about 55%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats are considered to be virus’ natural host