Vaccines & Viruses: Troubled trials for Ebola vaccine

Confounded results. After killing more than 4,700 people in Liberia, the Ebola virus has stopped spreading there, according to health officials who declared the country free of the virus earlier this month. That’s great news, but the declining circulation of the virus also means that a Liberian human trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine might not yield useful data to researchers. Without a large group of vaccinated individuals and a circulating virus, scientists won’t know whether a new vaccine has any effect. Ebola vaccine trials are also underway in Guinea and Sierra Leone, where infections continue at a declining rate. Critics say a scramble to complete trials before Ebola disappears may be leading to substandard care for trial patients.

Vaccine bill moves forward. The California Senate voted 25-10 last Thursday in favor of the much-debated and tweaked bill removing all but medical vaccine exemptions for the state’s schoolchildren. “Together we are turning the tide to stop communicable diseases before any more families are hurt,” said Sen. Richard Pan, one of the bill’s Democratic sponsors. But Sen. Joel Anderson, a Republican, asked, “Why is it a religious exemption is so scary to this Senate body?” Gov. Jerry Brown has not said whether he would sign the bill, which now goes to the state Assembly. If passed, the legislation would make California, along with Mississippi and West Virginia, the third state to outlaw both religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions. Homeschoolers would be exempt from the law.

Meanwhile in Vermont. The Vermont House of Representatives voted last week to repeal the state’s philosophical exemption for childhood school vaccines. Back in 2012, Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, said he supported the personal belief exemption. This year, Shumlin says he supports the repeal effort. The bill would still allow families to claim medical or religious exemptions.

Deaths explained. Mexican health officials say bacteria were responsible for the recent vaccination debacle that sickened 31 babies and killed two others in the southern state of Chiapas. A clinic in the village of La Pimienta had given the babies tuberculosis, rotovirus, and hepatitis B vaccines that were apparently contaminated with the bacteria, although officials haven’t yet said how the contamination occurred.

Meningitis in Niger. The World Health Organization warns of a rapidly spreading outbreak of meningococcal meningitis in the African nation of Niger. The number of suspected cases has tripled to nearly 5,900 since the end of April, and 406 people have died. The World Health Organization is coordinating the delivery of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses for the country.

Bird shot. Researchers from Ames, Iowa, say they’ve developed a vaccine to protect poultry from the bird flu outbreak that is ravaging Midwestern chickens and turkeys.