(VOVworld) – Britain has, for the first time, tested a new Ebola vaccine on humans. If it’s successful, the vaccine will be sent to West Africa, where the deadly virus is spreading.

Felicity Hartnell, a clinical research fellow at Oxford University, injects Ruth Atkins with an experimental Ebola vaccine in Oxford, England. (Steve Parsons/Associated Press/Pool)

British media reported on Wednesday that a 48-year-old British woman became the first of 60 volunteers to receive a dose of an experimental Ebola vaccine at a new trial at the University of Oxford.

Previous tests on animals showed no alarming side effects. If the trials demonstrate that the vaccine is safe for use in humans, they will be followed by larger clinical trials.

Last week an Oxford University study predicted the Ebola epidemic, which has so far killed more than 2,400 people in West Africa, could spread to 15 countries putting 22 million people at risk (Photo: dailymail.co.uk)

According to the World Health Organization, the number of deaths in the current Ebola outbreak has exceeded 2,400 people, mainly in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.