Vaccine developed by Canada for Ebola deemed highly effective in clinical trials.

An experimental Ebola vaccine partially designed at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory is found to be highly protective in a major clinical trial in Guinea.

It is a major milestone that could help prevent the spread of outbreaks like the one that killed thousands in West Africa.

Among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination, signalling a 100 per cent protection rate.

The results were published on Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The vaccine is developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada before being licensed to NewLink Genetics, who in turn licensed it to Merck & Co.