The National Institutes of Health is set to launch a human safety study for an Ebola virus vaccine candidate. The early-stage trial is the first in a series of Accelerated Safety Studies for vaccines for the virus.

The initial stages of human testing of an investigational vaccine designed to prevent the disease will start next week by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The initial human-tested vaccine, developed in conjunction by NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline, will test the experimental vaccine’s safety and ability to encourage an immune system response among healthy adults. The testing will be held at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

This study is the first of many Phase 1 clinical trials that will monitor the investigational NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine as well as an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The trials will be conducted in healthy adults who are not infected with the Ebola virus to determine the vaccine’s safety and whether it produced an immune response.

NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said in a statement, “There is an urgent need for a protective Ebola vaccine, and it is important to establish that a vaccine is safe and spurs the immune system to react in a way necessary to protect against infection.” He continued, “The NIH is playing a key role in accelerating the development and testing of investigational Ebola vaccines.”

According to the World Health Organization, Ebola virus disease is a severe and frequently fatal illness in humans, with many outbreaks that have a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.