Researchers announced Wednesday that a quick-acting single dose of an experimental Ebola vaccine has been discovered to be effective in nonhuman primates. The results look promising for further human vaccinations.

A professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Thomas Geisbert, said that the new vaccine “may pave the way” for manufacturing and identifying safer ways to combat Ebola outbreaks. He added that they are looking to create “single dose, high efficiency vaccines.”

This new vaccine fights specifically against the West African Makona strain that killed nearly 10,000 people in West Africa in 2014 and caused the concern across the globe, according to Business Standard. The population growth in West Africa is not slowing down, so the frequency of contact between natural Ebola hosts, such as bats, and humans will likely rise. This could cause more major outbreaks.

Geisbert explained that researchers are “excited” to aid in the development of a method that will stop the disease. He said that there is still a lot of work to accomplish, but “it’s important to note that this is a big step.”

The team’s new vaccine uses a virus–non-threatening to humans–called vesicular stomatitis. The vaccine contains a portion of the Ebola virus. According to the team of researchers, who also worked with the biotechnology company Profectus Biosciences, this vaccine triggered an immune response to Ebola Zaire safely.

Because safety is of such high concern, the team of researchers also created two next generation vaccines that are weaker. Chief scientific officer-vaccines at Profectus Biosciences John Eldridge said that the weaker vaccines also provided “complete, single dose protection” from the lethal strain of the virus.

Though the present Ebola outbreak seems to be under control, the potential for catastrophic outbreaks in the future helped speed the development of new solutions along. This time, researchers and doctors are hoping to be prepared.

The study’s results were published in the April 8 edition of the scientific journal Nature.