Abstract
The rVSV Ebola vaccine was shown to be very efficacious in a novel ring vaccination trial in Guinea. However, no correlates of vaccine protection have been established for Ebola vaccines. Several Ebola vaccine candidates are available, but conducting randomized trials of additional candidates in outbreak situations has become difficult. Establishing correlates of vaccine protection would be useful in helping vaccine candidates become licensed. In this note, we explore power and sample calculations to study potential correlates of risk (protection) during an Ebola vaccination campaign in an outbreak situation under a number of assumptions. At an overall vaccine efficacy of 75%, 50 Ebola endpoints in the vaccinees provided good power. At an overall vaccine efficacy of 90%, 20 Ebola endpoints gave good power under certain assumptions. In the May – July 2018 Ebola outbreak in DRC, over 3000 individuals were vaccinated, with no reported cases in vaccinated individuals. To be feasible, this type of study need Ebola endpoints in vaccinated individuals.