WASHINGTON: The U.S. government announced  that it will start initial human trials of Ebola vaccine next week.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement that the phase one clinical trial will determine if a vaccine, co-developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is safe and induces an adequate immune response, Xinhua reported.

Testing will take place at the NIH's clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland state, with 20 healthy adults aged 18 to 50 years receiving an intramuscular injection of the vaccine, it said.

Parallelly, the NIH and a British consortium, including the Wellcome Trust, will test the NIAID/GSK vaccine among healthy volunteers in Britain and in the West African countries of Gambia and Mali, the agency said.

The U.S. government is also discussing a trial of the vaccine in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

Read More: Celebrities Replaced By Products For Endorsements and The 10 Most World-Changing Ads