The US authorities will be testing an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus on humans in mid-September, the US National Institute of Health reported.
CNN and USA Today reported on Thursday that the path to human testing was opened by positive results from studies previously conducted on monkeys.
The U.S. health service also said on Thursday that an American medical worker, working in West Africa and infected with the Ebola virus, will be transported to the United States at a university hospital in Atlanta in the coming days. He will be placed in solitary confinement and will be under the care of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to information from American media in Africa, two more US citizens working as volunteers have been infected with the Ebola virus, but the authorities do not envisage their return to the country for the time being. The organizations that employ them say their condition is serious but stable.
CDC director Thomas Frieden explained that so far there is no effective therapy against Ebola, so transporting seriously ill patients may do more harm than help.
According to data from the World Health Organization, nearly 730 people died in West Africa as a result of the Ebola virus infection, and more than 1300 were infected. There is currently no cure for Ebola, and the death rate among those infected can be as high as 90 percent. (PAP)