Ebola Outbreak Latest News 2015: Experimental Ebola Vaccine Shipped to Liberia

The first doses of the experimental vaccine against Ebola virus by drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline have reportedly been shipped to the Liberian capital of Monrovia.

Healthcare workers and others at high risk from Ebola could be given the drug, which was developed at a remarkable speed, as early as next week, according to a report from The Guardian.

However, the speedy drop in Ebola cases in Liberia may make it hard to test the vaccine's efficacy. Last week, the country only had eight cases compared to the more than 300 cases a week in September last year.

The vaccine is the first of several drugs being developed for testing in west Africa.

The virus, meanwhile, may evade some experimental drugs, experts said. In a research published in the journal Bio, the Ebola virus strain that has claimed more than 8,600 lives in West Africa has been found to be mutating, which may dampen the effects of experimental drugs.

"Based on our findings, the virus has changed and is continuing to change," Jeffrey Kugelman, a viral geneticist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), was quoted by NBC News as saying.

"Ebola changes slightly from outbreak to outbreak, and the more people or animals infected, the more likely the virus is to mutate as it replicates inside a living body," the institute said.

Researchers found 10 new mutations that affect parts of the virus, which are targeted by treatments like Mapp Biopharmaceutical's ZMapp, Sarepta Therapeutics' AVI-7537, and a drug made by the Canadian company Tekmira.

All these drugs were designed to stick to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells.

"Their efficacy should be re-evaluated against the currently circulating strain," Kugelman's team suggested.

Tekmira said in a statement that it already made adjustments but has yet to test the drugs.

The World Health Organization has approved the use of experimental treatments. ZMapp, however, was found to have done well in monkeys. However, the treated monkeys were not infected with the Ebolavirus Makona variant, which has sickened over 21,000 people in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

Doctors were also said to "have no idea" if the drug actually helps. But human patients who were given ZMapp survived.

The same is true of the drug developed by Tekmira, reports said.