One million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015, the World Health Organization has announced.
It said “several hundred thousand” will be produced in the first half of the year.
And vaccines could be offered to health workers on the frontline in West Africa as soon as December 2014.
However, the WHO cautioned vaccines would not be a “magic bullet” for ending the outbreak.
Dr Marie Paule Kieny, a WHO assistant director-general, said: “While we hope that the massive response, which has been put in place will have an impact on the epidemic, it is still prudent to prepare to have as much vaccine available if they are proven effective.
“If still the massive effort in response is not sufficient, then vaccine would be a very important tool.
“And even if the epidemic would be already receding by the time we have vaccine available, the modelling seems to say vaccine may still have an impact on controlling the epidemic.”