Early next week, researchers are to begin testing humans with a highly experimental vaccine to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Prior texting of this particular vaccine is extremely minimal.

Human trials of GSK's experimental vaccine - which Britain's largest pharmaceuticals company is developing with the US National Institutes of Health - are to be fast-tracked, with funding from an international Consortium.

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The National Institutes of Health announced Thursday morning that it is launching the safety trial period on a vaccine developed by the agency's branch N.I.A.I.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccine safety trial will test up to 20 healthy adult volunteers to see if the virus is safe and triggers an adequate response with antibodies in their immune system.

The testing will be administered at select location around the globe. Beginning trials will be held at NIH's campus in Bethesda, Maryland. National Institutes of Health, along with a British team, will be testing that same vaccine on volunteers in the United Kingdom, Gambia and Mali.

American health officials are also speaking with NIH and other organizations about preparing vaccine trials for Nigeria in the near future. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun discussions with ministry of health officials in Nigeria about conducting a phase 1 safety study of the vaccine among healthy adults.

Vaccines normally take 10 years to develop, but GSK said it hopes to finish the first phase of trials by the end of 2014. It will start making up to 10,000 doses of the vaccine at the same time as the initial clinical trials, so that if they prove successful, stocks could be made available immediately to vaccinate the people in high-risk communities.

Despite the minimal test and research with this particular vaccine, the vaccine has already shown promising results in primates exposed to Ebola, without significant adverse effects.

The Ebola outbreak has killed 1,552 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria out of 3,069 cases.

TagsU.S. National institutes of health, Vaccine testing, NIAID, Ilberia, Guinea, Nigeria, Ebola outbreak