Terrifying as it may sound the fight to defeat Ebola has been taking place quietly on the streets of Gloucester.
Neil Walker, of London Road, is one of a small number of volunteers who has agreed to a course of injections to test vaccines as the world races for medication to fight the killer disease.
Figures up to January 20 show 8,690 people had been reported dead from Ebola in six countries including Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali and the number of reported cases had reached 21,797.
Three vaccine trials are underway in the UK and if successful will see the roll-out of the drugs across West Africa for testing in worst affected areas.
Dr Walker is part of the third trial - a booster vaccine. He is due to receive a second injection in less than a month, while doctors monitor him for any adverse reaction.
"I used to work at Woodchester Park (Gloucestershire) and was involved in (TB) vaccine trials there. Admittedly that was for wildlife (badgers), but it possibly gave me an understanding and point of view," said Dr Walker, 44, a doctor of mathematics who works at a bio medical research centre as a statistician, at Churchill Hospital, Oxford, near to where the trials are taking place.
The Jenner Institute at Oxford University, led by Professor Adrian Hill, received a £2.8m grant from Welcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development to run the tests.
Similar trials are underway in the US run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. If they are successful the funding will also allow GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) to begin manufacturing up to 10,000 additional doses of the vaccine.
The trials are testing for adverse reactions. According to the Oxford team the vaccine uses a single benign Ebola virus protein to generate an immune response. It does not contain infectious Ebola virus material and therefore cannot cause a person vaccinated to become infected with Ebola.
The booster trial is slightly different.
The first 'prime' vaccine in the booster programme is the GSK/NIH Ebola vaccine, which uses a single Ebola virus gene from Zaire in a chimpanzee adenovirus to generate an immune response.
The second injection – or 'boost' vaccine from Bavarian Nordic uses the same Ebola virus gene in a modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus.
"I am not really worried about any adverse side effects. What is a slightly swollen spot on your arm to be worried about in the context of what might be achieved?" said Dr Walker.
"I think you put your trust in the scientific community. These people know what they are doing. It is like getting on an aeroplane. You have to trust the engineers and the accumulated wisdom of hundreds of people and years of expertise.
"I don't feel personally like I will be saving any lives. I am just a tiny cog in a vast operation. In my own small way I hope I am doing something useful.
"It makes you feel part of the human race. Not heroic. Just engaged in the world in a small way, doing a very, very tiny thing that is useful."
Professor Hill said: "We'd especially like to thank all the volunteers. Whether we have a vaccine that is safe, effective and works, we won't know for a while yet. But we owe it to the people who have been affected so badly by the Ebola outbreak to find out."
Results from the first test were revealed yesterday (January 29).
"The vaccine was well tolerated," said Professor Hill. "People typically experienced mild symptoms that lasted for one or maybe two days, such as pain or reddening at the injection site, and occasionally people felt feverish."
To read more visit the Oxford University website.
