'Need for high investment, complex nature of virus challenges

Need for high investment, lack of necessary facilities and the complex nature of the virus make the finding of a vaccine for Ebola a difficult challenge, a noted French microbiologist said here today.
"Developing a vaccine is not a trivial issue. It requires huge investments by pharmaceutical companies. So far, Ebola has had limited outbreaks. So there was no need for the community to be convinced that there has to be a vaccine.
"Things are changing of course. Vaccine has to be a necessary arsenal, apart from various other measures like quarantining, isolation of patients, etc.," microbiologist Philippe Sansonetti said on the sidelines of a function at the French Cultural Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities to announce the start of a lecture series.

He, however, added that clinical trials for the "highly lethal virus" were in progress by three companies.
While noting that the Ebola virus was very complex in nature, Sansonetti also pointed out that research for finding a vaccine for it requires high-safety conditions in which tests are to be conducted.
"The elements of Ebola are genomic. The virus seems to change and modify its genome and one of its molcule is toxic in nature and the rules of toxification are still not well known.
"It is a highly lethal virus and requires safety measures to be in place. It requires BSL-4 laboratories (Biosafety Safety Level-4) for carrying out research. These are laboratories with the highest possible security.

"Plus, the animals which the vaccine is being tested upon are big in nature. So, you require big cages where these animals can be kept; Not many labs have these facilities. There are only few such labs in the US and Europe," Sansonetti added.