Ebola crisis: First major vaccine trials in Liberia.

The first large-scale trials of two experimental vaccines against Ebola have begun in Liberia.
The potentially preventative medicines were taken under strict security to a secret location in the West African country.
Scientists aim to immunise 30,000 volunteers, including front-line health workers.
More than 8,500 people have died in the Ebola outbreak, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The total number of reported cases is more than 22,000. In Liberia alone, more than 3,600 people have died from the disease.
But the number of Ebola cases in Liberia has been steadily decreasing, with only four confirmed cases in the week leading up to 25 January.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the epidemic has entered a "second phase" with the focus shifting to ending the epidemic.
Continue reading the main story

Ebola deaths
Figures up to 31 January 2015
8,936
Deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected
(Includes one in the US and six in Mali)
3,710 Liberia
3,274 Sierra Leon
1,937 Guinea
8 Nigeria
Source: WHO
Getty
The trial, which began on Monday, involves injecting 12 volunteers with a vaccine that contains a small, harmless fragment of the Ebola virus.
The aim is to trick the body into producing an immune response. More volunteers will be immunised as the trial progresses.
However, it is not yet clear whether the trial vaccines will offer protection against the disease.
The vaccine is still experimental and it is not clear whether it will definitely provide protection against Ebola
Vaccines train the immune systems of healthy people to fight off any future infection.
They often contain a live but weakened version of the virus.
Correspondents say the trials are testing two vaccines created by two different drug companies who are hoping that the international community will eventually seek to stockpile large quantities of a working vaccine.

Thumbs-up
The first man to receive the vaccine was a middle-aged Liberian, the BBC's Mark Doyle reports from the Liberian capital Monrovia.

Dr Stephen Kennedy explains to Mark Doyle how the vaccine works
Asked how he felt after his jab, he smiled and gave me the thumbs-up, our correspondent says.
The senior Liberian scientist involved in the trials, Stephen Kennedy, told the BBC the volunteers were safe.
"There is no danger because the piece of the Zaire strain that has been put into the vaccine is a weak strain and it cannot and will not cause Ebola, so it is impossible that any one of the volunteers will contract Ebola from the vaccine," Mr Kennedy said.
The scientists are well aware of how important the support of local people will be if this trial is to work, our correspondent says.
Community nurses are being trained in how to monitor volunteers in the months after they have their injections.
Parts of the largest Ebola treatment centre in the world, on the edge of Monrovia, are being knocked down, our correspondent says.