The United States began testing a Canadian-made Ebola vaccine on human volunteers Monday.

Thirty nine healthy volunteers signed-up at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for the trial. The first test subjects were injected with the VSV-EBOV vaccine in the first phase of testing.

Like Us on Facebook

There were 20 vials supplied by Canada for the clinical tests. Medical authorities will observe the first phase of the trial that will focus on the safety of the vaccine. Determining the proper dosage level of the vaccine is also part of the clinical tests.

Volunteers were divided into three groups. The first received a low-dose of the vaccine. The second group will be injected with an intermediate dose. The process will include monitoring for possible side effects and doing blood tests to determine the production of antibodies.

This will be repeated until the third group, which will receive a high dose, is cleared, said Col. Ron Shon Remich of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Rona Amborse, the Canadian health minister, said the launch of VSV-EBOV's first clinical test is a promising step in the global campaign to eliminate the virus, which has killed over 4,000 people in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"This provides hope because if the Canadian vaccine is shown to be safe and effective, it will stop this devastating outbreak," Ambrose said.

Licensed under NewLink Genetics Corporation, the Canadian vaccine was only tried out in animals before. Results suggest VSV-EBOV works for primates and increases survival rates of newly exposed individuals and prevents infection when given prior to exposure.

Tagsebola vaccine, Ebola treatment, Ebola outbreak, VSV-EBOV, Ebola vaccine trials, Human testing