Considered one of the biggest breakthroughs in Canada's scientific community in decades, the country's top microbiology lab has developed vaccines to fight two of the deadliest viruses known to man: Marburg and Ebola.

The tests have proven to be 100 per cent effective in saving macaque monkeys from the related viruses. In comparison, the normal fatality rates for those infected are 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

"Monkeys, when they are infected, suffer almost the identical disease to humans," explained Dr. Steven Jones, one of the Canadian scientists behind the study. "And if we can protect them using this vaccine, then this gives us a great deal of confidence that this will work in humans."

"This research has enormous public health implications," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases in the U.S.

He said the vaccine could be used to limit the spread of not only Ebola, but others like the Lassa fever virus and SARS coronavirus "that cause acute disease outbreaks and require a rapid response."

Jones and a team of international scientists developed the new vaccines over three years at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

He and collaborator Heinz Feldmann replaced a protein in an animal virus with a protein from the Ebola and Marburg viruses. They then successfully tested the vaccines on rodents.

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease in Maryland injected monkeys with the vaccines and then 28 days later with the viruses. The monkeys survived.

The ultimate goal in the creation of the vaccines is to protect people in North America in the event of a biological attack by terrorists or a domestic outbreak. The research was funded by the Canadian government and U.S. military.

Both viruses are spread by bodily fluids, including blood, sweat and saliva. Most victims die within days after massive internal bleeding and blood loss from various body orifices.

One risk factor for traditional cultures are practices such as embracing, kissing or ritually bathing the corpse, according to Wikipedia.

There is still no treatment other than pain relief for Ebola and Marburg victims, said Jones.

He's returning to Angola this week where 335 of 399 people who contracted Marburg had died as of May 26, according to the World Health Organization. He says he will work to try to contain the outbreak.

"One of the most nasty, foul things about this disease is that it is spread by close contact," he said, noting it often kills relatives of the ill.

"If you could use this vaccine in the field and vaccinate family members of known cases, you could be protecting those people who are putting their lives at risk for their loved ones."

Though the vaccines are meant to be given before infection to prevent illness, studies using mice as test subjects indicate that giving someone the vaccine shortly after exposure to the viruses could prevent about 80 per cent of such deaths.

This could be important in cases in which a health-care worker comes in contact with infected blood through a needle-stick accident. In the 85 documented cases of such, all have died.

Jones added that it could take up to six years to complete the research to show the experimental vaccines are safe and effective for humans.

However, researchers may get an investigational new drug designation for the vaccines. They could then be used on a compassionate basis during an outbreak.