MONROVIA – The Partnership for Research on Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in Liberia (PREVAIL), a joint Liberia-United States research partnership, has launched a Phase I clinical study to evaluate a candidate Lassa fever vaccine in adults of good health in Liberia.

The study, which is being carried out in collaboration with IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization and the study sponsor, is seeking to recruit 60 healthy adult volunteers at PREVAIL’s Redemption Hospital site in Montserrado County.

Lassa fever is a viral disease found in rats living in West Africa. Humans acquire the disease primarily through food or household items contaminated with the urine of infected rats. The disease also can be transmitted from person to person through contact with the infected person’s feces, urine, blood, or other bodily fluids.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of infected individuals with the Lassa virus have no symptoms. Approximately 20% of infected individuals develop severe disease, which can affect the liver, spleen, and kidneys. There is currently no vaccine for the prevention of Lassa fever and outbreaks have occurred in several West African countries, including Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Liberia.

The Phase 1 study, which will provide initial information about the safety of the study vaccine and whether it stimulates potentially protective immune responses against the virus, is being conducted at three sites in the United States. Liberia is the only West African study site assessing this vaccine. The candidate vaccine was developed by IAVI, and it is similar in design to the now-licensed Ebola vaccine manufactured by Merck that was originally tested in the PREVAIL 1 study conducted in 2015 in Liberia.

PREVAIL physician Dr. Mark Kieh will lead the Lassa fever vaccine study at the Redemption Hospital which will last for 14 months. “The prospect of developing a vaccine that will prevent Lassa fever is a great step forward,” says Dr. Kieh. “A Lassa fever vaccine would greatly reduce the disease burden by flattening the epidemic curve of seasonal outbreaks, offering hope and relief to local populations, especially rural communities who continue to suffer the brunt of this disease.” The Lassa fever vaccine study is receiving support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global alliance to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics and pandemics.

MONROVIA – Partnership for Research on Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in Liberia (PREVAIL) has admonished Liberians and people around the world to show support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV) and to memorialize those who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS.      

PREVAIL referenced an estimation from the UNAIDS which states that 38 million people are living with HIV globally; about 1.7 million of them are children less than 15 years old. Approximately two-thirds (67%) of these people live in Africa, including 13% in Western and Central Africa. In keeping with this year’s World AIDS Day theme, “End Inequalities: End AIDS: End Pandemics,” we must create equitable access to HIV testing, treatment, and prevention strategies for all PLWHIV, with special focus on vulnerable populations and communities left behind.

PREVAIL, a joint Liberia-U.S. research partnership, has been conducting high-quality medical research on Ebola and other infectious diseases in Liberia since 2015. During the past 3 years, PREVAIL has included research to better understand the clinical, viral, and immunological characteristics and progression of HIV disease in PLWHIV in both Montserrado and Margibi counties through the P8 study. It is projected that the research findings from the study will help us better understand the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Liberia and facilitate an improved standard of care for PLWHIV in Liberia. By working with community-based HIV support groups in Liberia, PREVAIL gives rights to stakeholders in its research and enhances the participants’ knowledge about their health.

 The ongoing study is open to all newly diagnosed individuals for voluntary enrollment after an informed consent process that describes the study and answers any questions.

The study provides free periodic medical exams to participants, assesses their response to ART, and provides medical diagnoses for many opportunistic infections that may arise. Additionally, at the request of the National AIDs Control Program and John F. Kennedy Hospital, PREVAIL is helping them coordinate viral load testing services. This alliance aims to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS by preventing new infections and ensuring viral load suppression among those who are already infected while providing quality, timely, and respectful care to HIV patients in Liberia. These high-level contributions support the Government of Liberia toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

“As we commemorate World AIDS Day, we are thankful for the remarkable strides made through clinical research, including the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. PREVAIL will continue to contribute to the Ministry of Health and National AIDS Commission of Liberia’s 2030 strategic goals on HIV/AIDS through its medical research and it will work with UNAIDS, the Liberia Ministry of Health, its partners, and interested communities toward ending the HIV epidemic,” PREVAIL stated in the press release.

Monrovia – The Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) recently conducted a clinical research study where Ebola survivors and their close contacts benefitted from eye cataract removal surgeries. 

The study, called PREVAIL 7, sought to address the issues of safety for participants to undergo cataract surgery and to define the post-surgical care needed to achieve the best vision outcomes.

It also aimed to understand whether the Ebola virus disease (EVD) persists in eye tissues of survivors with cataracts.

This information will also help determine how best to ensure the safety of the surgical team when performing eye surgery on Ebola survivors.

People with cataracts have difficulty seeing because the lens of the eye, which reflects light and allows them to see clearly, has become cloudy. Cataracts are the leading cause of reversible blindness in the world, and surgery is the only known effective cure.

Twenty million people worldwide live with blindness in both eyes due to cataracts. A cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective surgical interventions worldwide.

The study, which is still following the participants, has two major goals: (1) to determine the proportion of EVD survivors with viral persistence in ocular (eye) tissues, and (2) to compare the amount of inflammation between survivors and control patients at one month and three months after cataract surgery.

In addition, the investigators aim to assess whether the vision outcomes in Ebola survivors differ from those in other patients, whether age and gender play a role in their outcomes, and whether structural changes in the eye from Ebola infection impact these outcomes.

For the study, PREVAIL enrolled 24 Ebola survivors whose blood tested positive for the presence of EVD antibodies and 10 close contacts whose blood showed no evidence of EVD exposure.

All survivors and close contacts had visually significant cataracts, which means that the cataracts caused their best vision with the help of eyeglasses can only see at a 20-foot distance what a person with normal vision can see at a 40-foot distance.          

Participants in the study were drawn from the PREVAIL eye care sub-studies under the Ebola Natural History Study known as PREVAIL 3.

Participants were over 14 years old, and only one eye of a survivor could be a candidate for the surgery. Pregnant women were excluded because of the effect the procedure could have on an unborn fetus.

The research is a joint collaboration of multiple organizations spanning academic, government, faith-based, private, and non-governmental organizations from four countries.

These organizations included the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, LVPrasad/the Liberian Eye Center at JFK Hospital under Dr. Kumar Nishant, New Sight Eye Center under Mr. Robert Dolo, ELWA Hospital, Samaritan’s Purse, John Snow Inc., and the Liberian Ministry of Health.

Two U.S.-based surgeons, Dr. Daniel Gradin and Dr. Benjamin Roberts, donated one week of their time to Samaritan’s Purse to perform the surgeries.

They were chosen because of their rigorous training and extensive experience in Kenya and South Sudan performing similar cataract surgeries. 

At ELWA Hospital, under the direction of Dr. John Fankhauser, deployed the innovative Baylor Smart Pod—a small field clinic—for testing the aqueous fluid of the eye in Ebola virus.

The Baylor pod is a portable treatment unit that can be quickly built and rapidly deployed in emergency responses.

This pod provided clinical safety for participants, staff, and surgeons. E

LWA provided housing at Camp Lawana, adjacent to the staff housing, and provided food, lodging, and security before and after surgery for all participants.

Since June 2015, the PREVAIL 3 Natural History Eye Sub-Study has enrolled about 2,100 Ebola survivors and close contacts and followed them prospectively to shed light on the ocular complications of EVD.

Monrovia – The Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) has received high marks for its ongoing research program in Liberia. During Community Engagement and other Social Mobilization and Communication (SMC) activities carried out in October in Margibi, Montserrado, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi Counties, residents and other stakeholders hailed the Liberia-US Clinical Research Partnership for taking time to visit their various communities to spread the “good news,” which includes the benefits of PREVAIL activities for national and global public health.

Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, bettie.mbayo@frontpageafricaonline.com

The PREVAIL 1 Vaccine Study, which results were recently announced, made news as Liberians were upbeat about the prospects of contributing to research on a vaccine that may be used in the country in future Ebola outbreaks.

PREVAIL is the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia.

This is a joint Liberia-US clinical research program established in 2014 in response torequest by former Liberian Health Minister Dr. Walter Gwenigale to then U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to assist Liberia develop vaccines and therapeutics to tackle Ebola.

October 2017 was a significant milestone for the vaccine study and as more and more people were reached through community engagements.

In early October, PREVAIL announced in a press release the results of the PREVAIL 1 Vaccine Study as published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

On October 26th, study Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Fatorma Bolay addressed a MICAT press briefing and said the results show that the two test vaccines, cAd3-EBOZ and rVSV-ZEBOV, pose no major safety concerns and can produce immune responses within one month after vaccination that last for at least one year.

Dr. Bolay noted that some participants who received the test vaccines had temporary mild to moderate side effects, including headaches, muscle pain, fever and fatigue.

These side effects varied from one person to another. But overall, no major safety concerns related to the vaccines were identified. 

He said PREVAIL conducts collaborative biomedical research in accordance with best practices to advance science, strengthen health policy and practice, and improve the health of Liberians and people worldwide. 

Dr. Bolay further said that people who received the vaccines have successfully developed durable antibody responses.

The trial, according the Liberian scientist, suggests that VSV Ebola vaccine could be used to save lives in any future epidemic as it shows better potential than the other vaccine tested. 

Between February 2 and April 30, 2015, 1,500 men and women ages 18 and older were enrolled into the study at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town in Monrovia.

People who enrolled in the study had no reported history of Ebola virus disease.

Also speaking at MICAT, Mr. Emmanuel Lassana, the first participant in the PREVAIL 1 Vaccine Study, shared his experiences with the local media.

“I was the first to take the vaccine on February 2, 2015 at a time when there were a lot of misconceptions about the vaccine.

But I took it anyhow to help Liberia develop the vaccines to cure the world. And as you can see I’m well and sound,” Mr. Emmanuel Lassana added.      

Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in the outbreak in 2014-15.

Dr. Bolay said the PREVAIL 1 Vaccine Study results demonstrate that Liberia is poised to make a valuable contribution to global public health.

These results have generated excitement across various communities in Liberia, some of which were highly affected by the outbreak of Ebola.

Advocacy and Community Engagement activities focused on the ongoing follow-up Ebola Vaccine Study and the Genomics Study also took place in October across Montserrado, Margibi, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties.

More than 1,500 community members and key stakeholders have been directly reached with information about these studies being conducted by PREVAIL.

Communities visited included the Harmon Hill Community in Tubmanburg, Bomi County; Tire Shop Community at Redhill Field in Virginia just outside Monrovia; Wein Town Community in Paynesville; Unification City in Margibi County; and Sinje in Grand Cape Mount County.

The SMC Monitoring and Evaluation Lead, Dr. Khalipha Bility, is conducting surveys at these community events to find out how well the people understand and perceive the materials being presented about the studies.

At Bernard Farm, the residents welcomed information about the follow-up Ebola Vaccine Study, PREVAIL 5, especially as this was the SMC debut visit to the community.

Rev. Lassana Gebah and other residents said it is important for Liberians to enroll in this follow-up Vaccine Study.

Rev. Gebah was particularly pleased with the fact that the PREVAIL SMC hosted a community engagement event in their area to raise awareness.

Harmon Hill is one of the communities that was badly affected by the Ebola outbreak, and news of the results from the first vaccine study were received with great excitement by the residents during another engagement meeting there.

The study showed that the vaccine stimulated immune responses likely to be effective against the virus if one became infected.

An Elder Philip Swen said – “We lost about 30 persons in this community alone, so we are happy that the Liberian government and the American government are trying their best to find a vaccine for Ebola. We hope you people will keep up this awareness so that our sons and daughter will be encouraged to join the new vaccine study.”

PREVAIL SMC Community Engagement Partner, Liberia Crusaders for Peace, has been spearheading the messages in October intended to garner public participation in the various studies including the current Ebola Vaccine and Genomic Studies.

Speaking during a meeting in Unification City, Mr. Daniel Bumie of the Liberia Crusaders for Peace stressed the significance of community participation, noting that the research cannot be successful without study volunteers.

Bumie said the ongoing vaccine study is in the best interest of Liberia and it would require Liberians themselves to make the historic project work.

According to him, the success of PREVAIL has been largely due to the involvement of the community people and urged them to continue their cooperation.

Meanwhile the Principal Investigator of the Ebola Natural History Study, Dr. Mosoka Fallah, has underscored the crucial role of the media in scientific research.

Dr. Fallah attributes the success so far of PREVAIL to the important role the media continues to play in taking the key messages to the people.

He was speaking recently in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, during a one-day training workshop on health reporting for journalists in Western Liberia.

The program brought together reporters from Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu and host Bomi County.

The training, according to LEIDOS Clinical Communications Manager for PREVAIL, Hassan Kiawu, was intended to enhance their understanding of science communication. The training highlighted the Genomics Study being conducted by PREVAIL.

Dr. Fallah said it was important for the reporters to understand the merits of the research so that they will communicate the right kind of messages to the local population.

The ongoing Ebola Vaccine Study, otherwise known as PREVAIL 5, is taking place at the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, the venue of the first vaccine study conducted in 2015.

PREVAIL 5 is being jointly conducted by the PREVAC consortium in Liberia and Guinea under the auspices of the West African Regional Consortium. 

Monrovia – Emmanuel Lansana, the first vaccine volunteer, said his inoculation with the Ebola Vaccine on February 2, 2015 was met with a great resentment from his wife and other family members.

Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, bettie.mbayo@frontpageafricaonline.com 

According to him, despite all that, he was undaunted because he was poised to contribute to global public health efforts.

Mr. Lansana said regardless of the consequences he could have faced, he felt obligated to raise the profile of Liberia to better heights in this researched naive country.

“Now all you can see, I’m well. I did not get sick except for minor side effects such as chills and headache. But those went away in a couple of hours,” he disclosed. 

He called on Liberians to join the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) research so that vaccines and therapeutics can be developed to tackle Ebola. 

At the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) Thursday, the co-principal Investigator, Dr. Fatorma Bolay, said the clinical study aimed at bringing the Ebola outbreak under control in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone was launched on February 2, 2015.

He stated that PREVAIL conducts collaborative biomedical research in accordance with best practices, to advance science, strengthen health policy and practice, and improve the health of Liberians and people worldwide. 

PREVAIL was established in 2014 in response to a request made by former Liberian Health Minister, Dr. Walter T. Gwenigale, to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Burwell, for the United States Gov’t to assist Liberia in the development of vaccines and therapeutics to tackle Ebola. 

It is a joint clinical research partnership between the Liberian and U.S. governments through the Ministry of Health of Liberia and the US National Institutes of Health, or NIH. 

PREVAIL 1 was the first large-scale Ebola study conducted in Liberia. Between February 2 and April 30, 2015, 1,500 men and women ages 18 and older were enrolled into the study at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, Monrovia. 

“People who enrolled in the study had no reported history of Ebola virus disease. The participants were divided at random into three groups of 500 each,” he further stated. 

Dr. Bolay disclosed that one group received one test vaccine, the second group the other test vaccine, and the third group received a placebo, or saltwater injection. 

He says it was important to include the placebo so that our research team could compare how well the test vaccines worked.” 

“The study was originally designed to enroll 27,000 volunteers to see whether the vaccines could prevent Ebola virus disease.

However, it had to be scaled back to be much smaller when the decline in new Ebola cases made it impossible to conduct the larger study. “ 

“Participants gave blood samples before vaccination and again at one week, one month, six months, and one year post-vaccination.”

“The study team tested each of these samples for infection-fighting antibodies against the Ebola virus.  

Dr. Bolay added that after one week, only modest levels of antibodies were seen with both vaccines. 

However, by one month, 71 percent of cAd3-EBOZ recipients and 84 percent of rVSV-ZEBOV recipients developed an antibody response compared with three percent of placebo recipients.  

“At one year, the antibody responses were largely maintained in both groups: 64 percent of cAd3-EBOZ recipients and 80 percent of rVSV-ZEBOV recipients had antibody response compared with seven percent of placebo recipients.” 

He says some participants who received the test vaccines had temporary mild to moderate side effects, including headaches, muscle pain, fever and fatigue.

These side effects varied from one person to another. 

Overall, no major safety concerns related to the vaccines were identified.

The results showed that the two test vaccines, cAd3-EBOZ and rVSV-ZEBOV, pose no major safety concerns and can produce immune responses within one month after vaccination that last for at least one year. 

“Like my colleague and co-Principal Investigator on the study, Dr. Stephen Kennedy said two weeks ago, “by developing research capacity and infrastructure to answer questions about Ebola and other infectious disease that are threats to global health, PREVAIL has become a successful model for the implementation of clinical trials during health outbreaks in resource-constrained environments.” 

The other co-leader in addition to Dr. Kennedy and myself is Dr. H. Clifford Lane, Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Special Projects at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which sponsored the study in collaboration with the Liberian Ministry of Health (MoH).

He commended the volunteers and people of Liberia who went into the trial for their true collaboration which made it a success.

Monrovia – The Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) announced the start of a new study to investigate if genes impact how individuals respond to the Ebola virus.

At Monday’s opening session in Liberia, 15 volunteers successfully enrolled after completing the study entry process, which included a rigorous information session, a review of their medical history, and consent to participate in the study. 

Genes carry information passed on from one’s parents that affect how one looks as well as how the body works, grows and responds to infection. In this study, researchers will look for genes that may be related to a person’s health outcome after coming in contact with the Ebola virus. They will also look for genes related to the risk that a person will die of Ebola.

“We are about to embark on a study to investigate the genetic basis for people who contracted and overcame Ebola.”

“What we learn could hold the key for future therapy to protect Liberia and our world from the next Ebola onslaught,” noted Mosoka Fallah, PhD, MPH, one of the Co-Principal Investigators of the study and Deputy Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, NPHIL.

The study, called PREVAIL 6, aims to enroll approximately 8,500 participants at least three-years old and from four groups. One group would include up to 2,000 Ebola survivors, primarily those already enrolled in the Ebola Natural History Study, (PREVAIL 3).

A second group will include up to 3,000 people who were not infected but were close contacts of Ebola patients or were exposed to the virus either through their work or other association but never got Ebola.

The third group will enroll up to 3,000 individuals from the two vaccine studies, PREVAIL 1 and 5, who had no known Ebola exposure. Lastly, stored samples from up to 500 deceased Ebola cases will be included in the study.

Samples from these participants will be used to analyze their genes to determine how the genes compare among those who got sick with Ebola and survived; those who got sick with Ebola and died; and those who did not get sick with Ebola.

The samples will be processed at the Division of Biomedical & Public Health Research at NPHIL, and then part of each sample will be sent to the United States for genetic testing on specialized equipment that is not currently available in Liberia.

The study also will enable researchers to compare genes to further understand why some survivors continued to have health problems even after they have recovered from the illness, and why some men who survived Ebola continue to have traces of the virus in the semen for longer durations than others.

The study is a collaboration between PREVAIL; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Massachusetts, USA.

The trial is co-sponsored by NIAID and the Ministry of Health of Liberia.

PREVAIL 6 is led by a team of Liberian and American researchers.

The co-Principal Investigators are Dr. Mosoka Fallah of Liberia; Lisa Hensley, PhD, Deputy Director for Science for the NIAID Integrated Research Facility-Frederick of NIAID-NIH; and Pardis Sabeti, MD, DPhil, Associate Professor in the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University for the Broad Institute.

Participants will be recruited at PREVAIL sites by trained study personnel, and informed consent will be obtained before any study-related procedures or assessments are performed.

Because the study is voluntary, participants may withdraw at any time if they do not wish to continue in the study.

Monrovia – The Principal Investigator of Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) Dr. Mosoka Fallah says Protecting the population for the next disease remain a priority of PREVAIL.

Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, bettie.mbayo@frontpageafricaonline.com

He spoke at a one-day national consultative stakeholders meeting on Ebola Natural History Study (ENHS).

Fallah said for the past months PREVAIL has been thinking on how to make the vaccine available to mitigate any unsuspected outbreak.

He recalled the Democratic Republic of Congo has had 8 outbreaks and is discussing on how to employ the vaccine.

“So we are working on a team to now make the vaccine a public health response, so if you are an Ebola contact, you can be protected. “

Fallah continued: “Ebola can come back but we are prepared that if it returns we as a country will be ready, we are using the information from PREVAIL- One is to have the vaccine available so that it can be rapidly deployed.”

He disclosed that PREVAIL was asked to build the capacity of Liberians so that when the vaccine is approved, Liberia should be one of the sector in case there is another outbreak Liberians will be protected.

“We tested over 150 women and we haven’t seen issue of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) and we did a report that we have strong evidence that it is not found in the woman survivor womb, we also did the breast milk for 700 samples and it wasn’t there also. We didn’t see any virus in the lady but what we saw that all the babies born have the protection from their mom.”

The head of social mobilization, communication &Communication and community engagement Lead Manager at PREVAIL Barthalomew Wilson commended the participants for attending.

“For every time we come here we want to say thank you, you asked us to inform you how the research is going and this is what we are doing and this is why we are here.”

He continued: “You are important to PREVAIL, and we ask you to leave and go carry the message, PREVAIL depends on you to tell the people what you have learned, we can’t reach everywhere so we are depending on you to carry the message.”

Meanwhile, Advocacy lead Joseph Boye Cooper said 414 participants specifically 325 adults and 84 Children participated in PREVAIL 5 vaccine Study.

He said “Liberia has long been receiving the therapeutic drugs from other the western countries, it is time we contribute to public health initiatives”.

Cooper added that PREVAIL is looking forward to more scientific studies that will positively impact the public health village of the world.

The study is to know how long the vaccine can stay in the body to fight Ebola and to know how well the vaccine can work in children.

PREAVAIL 5 vaccine recruitment is for one year and study participants will be followed for an additional four years.

Monrovia – Liberian health reporters have expressed delight over the regular media training and information exchange forum organized by the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia, PREVAIL.

PREVAIL is a joint Liberia-US clinical research program established in 2014 in response to a request by former Liberian Health Minister, Dr. Walter Gwenigale to then US Health and Human Services Secretary, Sylvia Burwell to assist Liberia develop vaccines and therapeutics to tackle Ebola.

The reporters drawn from various media institutions in the country spoke on Friday, August 11, 2017 at the PREVAIL headquarters at the JFK Medical Center during a one-day media training for health reporters to enhance science communication and their understanding of the PREVAIL research program.

The reporters particularly praised PREVAIL for providing them with the requisite skills and periodic updates on the research program.

They said PREVAIL is the only organization that continues to enhance the work of health reporters in Liberia by conducting training on health sensitive reporting, news gathering, facts checking and ways to guiding against ethical transgressions.

The reporters urged PREVAIL to continue conducting training that will sharpen their skills in health reporting considering the fact that on-going PREVAIL research studies require a very sensitive and factual reporting.

“One of the key ways the media can make a positive contribution towards this research is by constantly brushing up our knowledge about emerging trends in the PREVAIL research studies” Emmanuel Wedee-Conway, an Editor at the Heritage Newspaper told representatives of PREVAIL at the training.

His comments resonated well with the rest of the reporters in the program who believe the more they get adequate information about the research; the better they will report from an ‘informed’ perspective that will help to change any negative public perceptions.

The one day training focused on the on-going Ebola preventive vaccines study otherwise known as PREVAIL-5 taking place at the Redemption Hospital in the Borough of New Kru Town.

PREVAIL 5 is jointly being conducted by Liberia and Guinea under the auspices of the West African Regional Consortium.

Sierra Leone will follow later this year.

Speaking earlier, the Clinical Communications Manager at PREVAIL, Hassan Kiawu reaffirmed his institution’s commitment to doing regular training for the media in a bid to get the right kind of messages out about the various Ebola research studies.

“We at PREVAIL feel that we need not wait for something to happen before conducting training”.

That’s why we’re providing the much needed visibility through these kinds of media interactions and by providing regular updates on our work”, noted Mr. Kiawu.

Also speaking, the Co-Lead on Social Mobilization and Communication, SMC Mr. Barthalomew Wilson urged reporters to always check their facts before reporting.

Mr. Wilson said their writing can either enhance or break any well-meaning effort especially research geared toward finding a global solution to Ebola. 

Mr. Wilson provided updates on the vaccine study, which seeks to enrol about 5000 participants including children between the ages of 1-17 years old.

The current phase of the vaccine is enrolling children between ages of 12-17.

The second phase will enrol those above one year old to 11 years old once the data in the first phase proves safe in children.

The first vaccine study conducted in 2015 enrolled only adults.

The rationale is to find out whether the vaccine is also effective in children as they are found to be in adults and how long it lasts in the body.

Sick people, breastfeeding mothers, pregnant women, Ebola Survivors and people who have taken other vaccines within a month’s time are not allowed to participate in the PREVAIL vaccine study.

Similar messages were echoed by PREVAIL Advocacy Lead, Joseph Boye-Cooper when he appeared on the Power FM/TV afternoon talk show Powerline on the same day in Monrovia.

As well as Messrs. Kiawu and Barthalomew, Mr. Cooper also highlighted major achievements of PREVAIL.

They include local and international human capacity training programs for Liberian staff at PREVAIL and the Liberia Institute for Biomedical Research, LIBR, employment opportunities for both Ebola survivors and non-survivors, infrastructure development and providing medical supplies to various health facilities in Liberia including Grand Kru County. 

Also on Friday at a community engagement attended by some 300 residents of Peace Island in Congo Town, the capacity crowd expressed delight over the information sharing and updates sessions.

The community engagement is being conducted under the pillar headed by Ambassador Julie Endee and the Liberia Crusaders for Peace.

The residents were particularly upbeat about the work of PREVAIL especially the vaccine and Ebola Natural History studies which are intended to find vaccines and therapeutics on Ebola.

They promised to spread the message to their community and to encourage people to enroll in the study.

“We know what Ebola did to us in Liberia and to see us jam pack this hall two hours before your start time is an indication of our interest and appreciation for what PREVAIL is doing to find vaccines that will prevent our people and the world from dying during an Ebola outbreak”, remarked Richard B. Smith, Co-chairman of the Peace Island Community. 

Mr. Smith told the gathering  the more they get these kinds of information, the more they will appreciate their Ebola Survivors and live with them freely in the community.

Other residents of the community including Pastor Alex Vlee and Youth leader Georgia Toah at the program called on their fellow compatriots and other community members to embrace the research study because it has the potential to put Liberia on the world map as far as public health is concerned.

Earlier, Bartholomew Wilson, SMC Co-Lead who served as key speaker, said community acceptance of the work of PREVAIL has been exceptional.

Wilson said unlike in 2015 when there was negative perceptions and myths about the first vaccine study, the PREVAIL-5 has been highly welcomed and accepted in the communities owing to the model of engagement adopted by the joint Liberia-US clinical research partnership.

Much of the success of the study has been largely attributed to the SMC’s community engagement and awareness activities being carried out by the Liberia Crusaders for Peace, a partner of PREVAIL.

The LCP has recruited and deployed over 300 young people including survivors to work as community mobilizers and communicators aimed at garnering public participation in the various Ebola research studies being conducted by PREVAIL in Liberia.

Monrovia – The Social Mobilization and Communications Team at the Liberia-US Clinical Research Partnership, PREVAIL climaxed its month-long activities with the hosting of a week-long training in Knowledge, Attitude and Practice – KAP in Montserrado County. 

This study gathers information about what community members or respondents know, think and what they actually do so that we can support the PREVAC vaccine study through advocacy, communication, community engagement and M&E activities in the community

KAP surveys identify knowledge gaps, socio-cultural practices, behavioral patterns that may facilitate understanding and action, as well as pose problems or create barriers for effective social mobilization efforts.

Before conducting the outreach, communicators, mobilizers and other participant trackers received training on various aspects of the survey.

The aim of the exercise is also to identify factors influencing behavior that are not known to outside people, reasons for prevailing  attitudes, and how and why people practice certain health behaviors that can influence community participation in a vaccine study.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Pillar Lead at the PREVAIL SMC Team, Dr. Khalipha Bility urged the communities to make honest input that will help the research identify those gaps and behavioral pattern that will enable the study team find solution.

The month of March also saw the SMC hosting a series of Advocacy and Community Engagement forums in various communities in Montserrado and Margibi Counties.

On the PREVAIL III, the Ebola Natural History Study, the Co-Lead of Social Mobilization and Communication, Barthalomew Wilson and Advocacy Lead, Joseph Boye Cooper Spoke of the tremendous efforts being made by the research study to find out the range of health problems survivors are faced with so that optimized solution can be found.

Barthalomew further explained is an on-going in-depth study of Liberian Ebola survivors and their close contacts. He said with many survivors experiencing a range of health problems, it was important they joined the study in order to exam them to determine whether they are now free of the virus.

They spoke of the availability of health care assistance for Ebola survivors through the John Snow Incorporated at some medical facilities while plans are underway by the Survivors network to het many other health facilities to cater to survivors across.

He stressed that PREVAIL only conducts examination and research to find out their health status but does not treat.

Both he and Cooper spoke of other sub-studies such as the eye, semen collection, neurology/Lumber puncture and birth cohorts as some of the studies being conducted to find out if there are any residual or persistent virus in survivors.

Cooper point out that since the intervention of PREVAIL through the launch of the birth cohorts in December 2015, miscarriages and still birth which were common occurrences among female survivors are now things of the past.

And urged pregnant survivors and close contacts to enroll in the birth cohorts, close contacts and semen sub-studies respectively.

The head of Community Engagement in the SMC, Amb. Juli Endee has also encouraged survivors to join the PREVAIL.

She said PREVAIL was in Liberia to help the country development vaccines and other help to tackle Ebola.

She also said in so doing, PREVAIL has done tremendous job in providing employment for over 350 Liberians in the medical and other disciplines as well as hired over 300 communicators and mobilizers through the Liberia Crusaders for Peace.

She said PREVAIL also has state-of-the-art equipment that checks for many illnesses that Liberia does not have the capacity to do.

Amb. Endee emphasized that such forum was important so that Liberians would know the valuable contribution PREVAIL is making in Public Health.

Such statements were also expressed by Ambassador Endee and other speakers including the head of the National Ebola Survivors Network of Liberia, Patrick Faley who made appearances in Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Montserrado and Margibi Counties on various rural radio networks.

The updates and statements by the key PREVAIL SMC team leaders set off a barrage of praises from the scores of people who attended the community engagement and advocacy events. 

Much to the delight of the capacity crowd, other speakers also shared similar sentiments. Ebola survivors also praised PREVAIL for the level of care being provided them. They expressed gratitude and support to PREVAIL.

The vigorous program of the Social Mobilization, advocacy and Communications carried out by trained PREVAIL staff has played a critical role in overcoming public perceptions about the PREVAIL study, recruiting trial volunteers and maintaining the excellent rates of the follow-up in this study.

In all of these engagements, the PREVAIL SMC team urged the communities and survivors alike to take advantage of the research study to find out their health status.

They stressed enrollments for close contact, birth cohorts and semen collection to find out if they are free from Ebola.

The advocacy team also interacted with community leaders and traditional midwives at various health facilities across the two counties to seek their cooperation in referring pregnant survivors enroll in the birth cohorts during their eighth month rather than deliver their babies.

Referring them to the birth Cohorts, according to them will help them deliver their babies safely and will be looked after for five years, just as the mother and the other survivors will be followed.

The Communications team also organized a monthly refresher training program for the National Ebola Call Center aka “4455” as a way of providing the much needed information to the public through in-bound calls from the public seeking information.

Liberian health reporters also benefited from media training and interactive exchange forum intended to enhance their skills in science communication and health sensitive reporting.

Over two separate days, training exercises were conducted for reporters in Margibi and Montserrado which included top newspapers and other broadcast media outlets in Monrovia.

During the training, local community radio reporters were briefed on the ongoing Ebola Natural History Study and how to report on health related issues.

Hassan Kiawu, the Clinical Communications Manager for PREVAIL, told the journalists about the need to respect the privacy of patients particularly Ebola survivors when reporting on PREVAIL.

Speakers at the media training including Attorney Phillip Wisseh, Managing Editor of The Inquirer Newspaper, Media Trainer Raymond Zarby of UNMIL Radio, Senior Editor at the Daily Observer, Omari Jackson urged journalists to check their facts before reporting.

SMC Co-Leads, Barthalomew Wilson and Katie Cone in separate remarks expressed appreciation to the media for their highlighting PREVAIL activities in the media and called for closer cooperation with the media.

For his part, Barthalomew urged the media to always check their facts and must never hesitate to contact PREVAIL for clarity.

He said negative reporting has the potential of derailing gains made in clinical research and will not augur well for the research let alone for the country.

The training covered health sensitive reporting, ethics, facts checking and the impact of negative reporting in clinical research.

The head of the National Ebola Survivors network of Liberia Patrick Farley said in his presentation that Ebola survivors are not harmful as they cannot pass on Ebola to anyone.

He called on the media to help end stigmatization of survivors in Liberia

Monrovia – The ongoing community engagements and outreach activities in support of the Ebola Natural History Study continues to reach out to people in local communities across Liberia.

Report by Edwin G. Genoway – edwin.genoway@frontpageonline.com

Less than a week after a tour of parts of Margibi County, the Liberia Crusaders for Peace and her partner, PREVAIL, last Wednesday visited the slum community of Battery Factory along the Somalia Drive discussing with residents the significance of the study.

The Ebola Natural History Study is a five-year research program for Ebola survivors and their ‘close contacts’ which is being conducted in Liberia by the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL).

Speaking at the program the Advocacy Lead of PREVAIL, Joseph Boye Cooper, encouraged the residents to reach out to survivors and their close contacts in the community that have not enrolled into the study.

Cooper explained the various initiatives of PREVAIL since they came to Liberia almost three years ago.

He said up to present, PREVAIL has already concluded clinical trial for the Ebola preventive vaccine with about 1500 volunteers taking part in the trial at the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

According to Cooper, the ongoing Ebola Natural History Study has so far enrolled 1200 participants, a number that is still short of the 7500 participants needed for the five year research study.

The Ebola Natural History Study named as PREVAIL three, is targeting 1500 Ebola Survivors and 6000 of their closed contacts.

It is meant to look at the root causes of some of the medical complications being suffered by Survivors and advance possible treatment solutions to the government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Health.

Cooper said the close contacts (people who took care of survivors when they were sick) were also being examined to investigate why they did not come down with the virus.

There are other sub studies taking place as part of the Ebola Natural History Study. They include birth cohort, semen collection, breast milk testing, and eye testing among others.

All of these sub studies, according to Cooper, are meant to ensure that the survivors remained healthy while a possible treatment solution is being investigated by the scientific research community in case there is a future outbreak in Liberia and any part of the world.

Following a presentation by the PREVAIL and LCP Team, residents were moved by the message and were asking as to whether they too could be part of the study.

But the fact is that you must be a survivor or a closed contact before taking part in the study.

Some of the residents speaking at the program also promised get to survivors and closed contacts in the battery factory area so as to join the study.

Much of the success of the Ebola Natural History Study is down to massive public awareness and community engagements carried out by the Liberia Crusaders for Peace which leads the pillar on Community Engagement for PREVAIL.

The LCP has so far taken the community engagement efforts to some hard-to-reach areas in the country especially communities that were greatly affected by the deadly Ebola outbreak in Liberia.