(VOVworld) – The first large-scale trials of two experimental vaccines to tackle Ebola have begun in Liberia. The Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines (PREVAIL), which was established under US and Liberian government co-operation, is in charge of the trials.

A woman , right, is injected by a health care worker, as she takes part in a Ebola virus vaccine trial at the Redemption hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, on February 2, 2015. (Photo: AP)

In the first phase 12 volunteers will be injected with two types of vaccines – cAd3-EBOZ and VSV-EBOZ – every day at the vaccine centre at the Redemption hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. The trials will expand to other hospitals near Monrovia after 600 people have been vaccinated. The two vaccines were invented by American and Canadian scientists and were tested successfully in the US and some European countries.
During the trials PREVAIL workers will seek volunteers who could be liable to infection from Ebola virus, such as health workers, people living in Ebola-infected areas, and people who bury Ebola patients’ bodies. Some 27,000 adult volunteers are expected to join the trials, which will end in June.