Vaccine development for emerging virulent infectious diseases

The recent outbreak of Zaire Ebola virus in West Africa altered the classical paradigm of vaccine development and that for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in general. In this paper, the precepts of vaccine discovery and advancement through pre-clinical and clinical assessment are discussed in the context of the recent Ebola virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Zika virus outbreaks. Clinical trial design for diseases with high mortality rates and/or high morbidity in the face of a global perception of immediate need and the factors that drive design in the face of a changing epidemiology are presented. Vaccines for EIDs thus present a unique paradigm to standard development precepts.