A child reacts as a health worker injects her with the Ebola vaccine, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: VCG

Japanese scientists will begin the country's first human trial for a new vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus this month, they said Friday.

It has previously been tested in monkeys, and uses an inactivated form of the virus that can only effectively replicate in artificial cells.

The Ebola virus is passed on by contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected or recently deceased person. The death rate is typically high, ranging up to 90 percent in some outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization.