3,000 dead from ebola as vaccines set to start 

The World Health Organisation said it expects to begin small-scale use of two experimental ebola vaccines in West Africa early next year and in the meantime, transfusions of survivors’ blood may offer the best hope of treatment.

WHO is working with pharmaceutical companies and regulators to accelerate the use of a range of potential treatments to fight the disease that has no cure and which has killed 2,917 out of 6,263 people infected in West Africa since an outbreak began in March.

GlaxoSmithKline has begun clinical trials of its vaccine in the US and Britain, to be followed by a trial starting in Mali next week, while NewLink vaccine trials are about to start in the US and Germany, said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s assistant director general.