Experimental Ebola vaccines will be tested in Ebola-stricken West African countries as early as January next year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Tuesday.

Two experimental vaccines are currently slated for "real-world use," said Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, assistant director general of WHO.

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She told a news briefing in Geneva that clinical trials, either underway or being planned in the United States, Europe and Africa, are expected to release preliminary data proving that the two trial vaccines are safe for human use by the end of the year.

If deemed safe, the approved trial vaccines will be shipped with tens of thousands of doses to countries most affected by the spread of the Ebola virus beginning January.

Experts are looking to make the initial doses available to people who are most at risk of becoming infected -- the healthcare workers who are at the forefront of preventing the spread of the virus and the relatives of those who have died or have been diagnosed of the disease, reported the USA Today.

WHO cautioned the experimental vaccines will not immediately control the spread of the infection, but said it could stave off its exponential spread.

The Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has so far infected 9,200 people and has claimed about 4,500 lives, according to WHO.

The organization said the disease currently infects 1,000 people every week and warns about soaring cases of 5,000 to 10,000 per week in the coming months if authorities do not come up with stronger measures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that if the virus is not contained by January, 1.4 million people in West Africa will be infected.

The two trial vaccines-one developed by U.S. National Institutes of Health with GlaxoSmithKline and another by the Public Health Agency of Canada-are expected to be mass produced shortly after approval.

WHO expects to make 20,000 experimental Ebola vaccinations by January and projects similar numbers in the coming months.

TagsHealth Medical Pharma, Biology, Microbiology, medicine, Ebola Virus Disease