Ebola Postexposure Prophylaxis with a Vaccine

How to manage individuals exposed to the Ebola virus remains undetermined. During the current epidemic, a physician sustained a high-risk needlestick injury at an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone. Approximately 43 hours later, just before being transferred to a treatment center in the U.S., he received a single dose of a replicating, attenuated, recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus containing the Zaire Ebola virus glycoprotein gene (VSVΔG-ZEBOV).

Twelve hours after immunization, the patient developed malaise and nausea; his oral temperature rose to 38.9^oC. Hours later, he developed severe myalgia, chills, malaise, and headache. Over the next 3 or 4 days, his fever and symptoms diminished. He had mild lymphopenia for 2 days. Real-time r…