Man Injects Self With Ebola Virus

A man in the US has deliberately been injected with the Ebola Virus as part of efforts to fight the disease.

Peter Hubbard of Alexandria, Virginia is one of 20 people who are involved in clinical trials for an Ebola vaccine.

Hubbard says he is taking the “small risk” of injecting himself to aid the creation of a vaccine which would curb the spread of the disease and save lives.

He said:

" I get a lot of satisfaction out of the fact that this could potentially develop into a viable vaccine that prevents another outbreak. It might not help out with the current outbreak but it could prevent a future one, so that's a real plus in my book."

 "I feel great, yeah. In fact, I couldn't tell where the injection site was thirty minutes after it. I ran a marathon on Sunday. I'm alive and kicking."

"But honestly, I'm not worried about an Ebola outbreak because I've taken the time to inform myself and I realise that there's very low risk for that."

Hubbard has also taken part in vaccine trials for Malaria, HIV, Chickungunya and H1N1.

"I do have a joke that, that with all of these vaccine trials that I've done, that if plague and pestilence were to sweep throughout the land, I'd be the last man standing," he added.

The vaccine Mr. Hubbard is part of trials for is being developed by pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ebola has killed almost 5000 people in West Africa and there is yet no cure or vaccine for the disease.