In the next few weeks 100 healthy Kenyans will be asked to volunteer to take part in Ebola vaccine trials, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has said.

A statement posted by the Kemri-Wellcome Trust Research Programme says the trials of the vaccine developed by Canadians have already started in the US and preparations for Kenya, Gabon, Germany and Switzerland are being made.

The exercise to be overseen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) will vaccinate 335 healthy volunteers starting with 20 in Germany, followed by 100 each in Gabon and Kenya and 115 in Switzerland, if the trials proceed as planned.

WHO said some of those expected to volunteer are health workers who will travel to West Africa to help fight the disease.

Kenya and five East African countries are planning to have volunteer health workers airlifted to the affected countries.

This is the second Ebola vaccine to be put on human trials following another one developed by the GSK, which is being tried in Mali and the UK.

"It is hoped that both vaccines will enter Phase 2 and 3 trials at the end of this year and early next year in West African regions affected by the outbreak," Kemri said.

The Canadian vaccine, rVSV-EBOV, to be tested in Kenya, has so far only been tested in monkeys. Wellcome Trust last week contributed $5 million (Sh448.9 million) to finance the trials.

Researchers are trying to determine the safety of the vaccines and correct dosage. Media reports last week said scientists in the US have completed the first tests of the Canadian-made vaccine on 13 people to gauge its safety.

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research vaccine researcher Shon Remich said they also expect to have some idea of immune response in the next three weeks, the CVT News reported.

intermediate dose

"All the data we have from the initial low-dose group is being reviewed by a scientific review committee and they will give us permission whether we can move into an intermediate dose and high dose," Dr Remich said.

This means that if the US tests prove the vaccine is safe, the Kenyan volunteers will then be tested on a higher dose and will also allow the researchers to compare performance from a larger group of volunteers. If the vaccines prove to be safe and effective and then moves to production and distribution, Dr Marie-Paule Kieny of WHO says it will be the fastest vaccine roll-out to date.