This is the ninth outbreak of Ebola in the Congo since it was first reported in the 1970s. An experimental vaccine may prove to be the answer to this latest outbreak. The World Health Organization (WHO) is deploying the vaccine invented by Merck, the pharmaceutical giant. Back in 2016, the FDA of the United States gave the vaccine a Breakthrough Therapy Designation. At the same time, the European Medicines Agency granted the vaccine PRIME status. These two designations expedited the process for development and production of the vaccine for therapeutic treatment to both existing patients and as a preventive.
Known as V920, the vaccine was engineered by scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Merck licensed it for broad clinical use providing funding to support its further development. And now subject to final approvals and assistance from the WHO and Medecins Sans Frontiere (MSF) the company is ready to go with 4,300 doses to deliver to the outbreak area. Current stockpiles for V920 amount to 300,000 doses.
As a preventive, the vaccine remains an unknown in terms of duration. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be administered to as large a number of individuals in the affected area to prevent Ebola’s spread. The initial trial of V920 was carried out in the 2015 Ebola outbreak in Guinea that eventually claimed 11,000 lives in West Africa. At that time a 12,000 person trial involving 6,000 receiving the vaccine produced Ebola-free results. Those who didn’t receive the vaccine were less fortunate with 23 developing hemorrhagic fever in a population of 6,000.
Can the world respond even faster to Ebola outbreaks than done in the past? One way would be to ensure that experimental drug development aimed at stopping pandemics be fast-tracked so that clinical trials can be expanded sooner based on faster analysis of preliminary results. The Breakthrough Therapy Designation and PRIME status categories now being assigned to life-saving drugs is a good first step. But accelerated approval processes are needed so that outbreaks can be contained sooner. There is no excuse in any time delay when responding to Ebola considering how many died in 2015.
The window uses adaptive optics to adjust the opacity of the window without limiting the amount of light that can pass through it. It can go “milky” for privacy, or you can change the colour of the light from “cool blue” to “warm yellow.” And the windows serve to provide complete privacy. No blinds or other window coverings required. The full range of colours are seen in the image below. Note the opacity still allows you to see the hand behind the glass.
The research behind the invention is reported in an article entitled, Electrokinetic pixels with biprimary inks for color displays and color-temperature-tunable smart windows, in the June issue of the journal, Applied Optics.
The material used is adaptable to existing windows and can be rolled-on as a coating. It is a multi-layer honeycomb of electrodes with embedded electrophoretic ink that is tunable to four different states. Even at its darkest setting it will let in 90% of the light while giving those in a room full privacy. It does this by turning the window milky. The schematic below illustrates the mechanism behind this unique capability.
The best thing about these windows, they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture, as is the coating that can be used to retrofit existing windows. I expect University of Cincinnati’s industrial partners to bring the technology to market in the near future.
]]>
