Trials have begun for the first large-scale vaccines created to battle the Ebola virus in West Africa as scientists hope to put an end to the current epidemic and prevent another one from occurring.

Two experimental vaccines were taken to a secure location in Liberia, which is one of the three countries — along with Sierra Leone and Guinea — that were hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak last year and have lost thousands of lives to the disease, according to a BBC report.

Scientists will immunize 30,000 volunteers from the virus, including health workers, according to the report.

For the trial, which begins Monday, scientists will inject a small amount of an Ebola strain into 12 volunteers to prompt the body to produce an immune response, and more and more volunteers will be immunized as the trial continues. Scientists don’t yet know just how effective the trial will be.

The hope is to create a large stockpile of vaccines that is effective against Ebola, thus preventing another epidemic. The current crisis has been subsiding, with fewer cases reported each week.

A Liberian scientist, Stephen Kennedy, said in the BBC report that the vaccine posed no danger do volunteers, as the Zaire strain of the virus that was put into the vaccine is weak and won’t cause Ebola.

The World Health Organization says that the epidemic has reached the “second phase,” which is when the focus begins to shift onto ending the epidemic.

Other safety trials for potential vaccines have occurred in the UK and in Switzerland for two promising drugs.

A total of 21,000 Ebola cases have so far been reported since the outbreak began, killing 3,600 in Liberia alone. However, the pace of infection has dropped dramatically, with only five recent confirmed cases in the country.