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(Adds quote from deputy health minister)
* Scientists worry the trials may be too late
* Doctors, minister due to be vaccinated Tuesday
* Trials set to involve 27,000 volunteers
By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Liberia began a trial ofexperimental Ebola vaccines on Monday, involving thousands ofvolunteers as part of an effort to slow the spread of the deadlyhaemorrhagic fever and prevent future outbreaks.
The epidemic has killed more than 8,900 people in WestAfrica since it began more than a year ago, overwhelming weakhealthcare systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Itsspread now appears to be slowing, especially in Liberia whichhas reported just 15 new cases in the past 21 days.
The trial to test two vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and New Link/Merck began at the government-runRedemption Hospital in Monrovia, a cluster of cement blocks inthe teeming New Kru Town neighbourhood that was one of the firstparts of the capital to be struck by the disease.
"I do not want for Ebola to affect my family and so I havecome to volunteer," said Zolu McGill, among the first batch offour volunteers seen at the hospital by a Reuters reporter.Several doctors and the country's information minister LewisBrown plan to be vaccinated on Tuesday.
But Liberia's Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah saidhe did not expect the vaccines to make a difference in thecurrent outbreak. "What will end this outbreak are the measuresthat we are taking now - the Ebola treatment units, the contacttracing, the engagement in the community and socialmobilisation. That is what is getting us to zero."
Scientists say the study, a final stage trial which hopes toinvolve 27,000 volunteers at the heart of the epidemic afterearlier safety trials in the UK, United States and other Africancountries, could be a turning point in the fight against thedeadly virus, which has no known cure.
But given relatively few new cases in the dwindlingoutbreak, researchers are concerned the trial in Liberia, plusanother planned in Sierra Leone, may not have the statisticalpower needed to show whether the shots work.
Volunteers will receive a small compensation package. Eachof the vaccines contains a small harmless portion of the Ebolavirus and may cause side effects in some people such as pain,redness, fever, headaches, mouth sores, tiredness, muscle, jointpain and loss of appetite.
The Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines (Prevail)says healthy volunteers above 18 years old who have no previoushistory of the virus will be selected.
HOPES OF DEFEATING EBOLA
Vice President Joseph Boakai said in a speech on Sundayattended by dignitaries that he hoped the successful developmentof drugs would prevent any other country from suffering thedevastation experienced by Liberia.
"It's our conviction that from this worthy exercisehumankind will prevail over the deadly killer of man," he said.
The slowdown in the epidemic is already hampering drugdevelopment. Chimerix Inc said on Friday it wasstopping participation in clinical studies in Liberia of a drug,brincidofovir, to treat people who already have Ebola, citingthe slump in new cases.
With that in mind, and looking ahead to future potentialoutbreaks, scientists are thinking about how to develop and testsecond-generation Ebola vaccines, which could be used to preventmore strains of the disease than the current fast-trackedshots.
Some scientists and aid workers are calling for trials tobegin promptly in neighbouring Sierra Leone where transmissionhotspots exist around the capital Freetown.
The U.S. ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, said thatcooperation on the vaccines represented an opportunity forgreater cooperation between the two countries on clinicalresearch and developing the Liberian health system.
"It's fantastic that large-scale trials of the firstcandidate Ebola vaccine are getting underway in Liberia, acountry that has suffered enormously at the hands of thisdisease," said Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust,which is funding a trial of the GSK vaccine in Britain and Mali. (Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Writing byEmma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Sophie Walker)
