CRI听力:Anti-Ebola Vaccines Available Next Year

The United Nations' special envoy on Ebola says anti-Ebola vaccines could be made available next year.

David Nabarro says phase-one trials are currently underway on two candidate vaccines.

"I think the situation with regards to anti-Ebola vaccines is promising, there are phase-one trials underway of two candidate vaccines and providing these go well, and the subsequent trials are successful, I am told there will be doses of vaccine available next year."

The comments come hours after Doctors Without Borders announced that accelerated clinical trials will be launched in West Africa to speed the search for a treatment for the disease.

Meanwhile, Anthony Banbury, UN Special Representative and Head of UNMEER, says the UN aims to reach 70 percent of new cases in isolation by December.

"The United Nations has a plan to achieve seventy percent of safe burials by December 1, 70 percent of new cases in isolation by December 1. If we do that, the rates of infection are going to be decreasing rather than increasing and then we can focus the efforts I'm driving it down to zero."

Earlier, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf lifted the state of Emergency imposed on the country.

Sirleaf says significant gains have been made in the fight against Ebola, prompting the government to make changes.

UN officials also say a scaling up in the overall response remains necessary if the Ebola outbreak is to be fully stopped.

The confirmed death toll from the virus is now over 5,100 people, almost all of them from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.