Public concerns about Zika are mounting as the virus threatens to spread deeper into the Southern U.S. A recent poll by Morning Consult found that 61 percent of people believed the U.S. should spend more money to fight Zika, though it did not ask about the issues at the heart of Congress’s funding stalemate like Planned Parenthood or offsets.
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As of July 21, 433 pregnant women in the states and 422 in US territories have shown “laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Researchers said that if the virus is contracted during pregnancy, Zika can cause severe birth defects.
As many as 80 participants, between the ages of 18 to 35 years old, were selected to take part in the trial, which will be conducted in various sites around the country, including the NIH’s clinical center in Maryland. The main goal of the study will be to evaluate the vaccine’s safety and to see whether it generates an immune-system response in patients. The trials began in Miami a few days ago uses another DNA-based vaccine produced by Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
WASHINGTON ― Saying the Zika threat is “getting critical”, President Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to go back to work and pass the funding he has sought since February to combat the disease now spreading in Florida.
A US$1.1 billion compromise failed after House Republicans attached language that would place restrictions on abortion and defund part of Obama’s signature 2010 healthcare law.
So far, the only mosquitoes in America carrying the Zika virus are confined to one neat square mile north of downtown Miami.
The letter from HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell says that without additional money the second phase of clinical trials will be delayed, and Americans will have to wait longer for a vaccine.
“In addition, research and development of other vaccine candidates, diagnostics, therapeutics and (mosquito) vector control technologies may be constrained”, Burwell wrote.
The vaccine was developed with a relatively new technology.
“Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out”, Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon. Barouch said two other vaccines are under development, including one at the National Institutes of Health, and safety tests in humans are just beginning.
Spirit Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Delta all have made changes to how passengers can adjust their travel plans because of warnings about the virus.
And he took a jab at McConnell on Tuesday evening, predicting the Senate would move hurriedly if a transmitted Zika case is reported in Kentucky, McConnell’s home state.
Monkey studies of three different Zika vaccines showed that each one completely protected the animals from a “challenge” with the virus. The vaccine doesn’t contain infectious proteins, so people will not get an actual Zika infection from the vaccine, the researchers said.
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The vaccine being tested in people in the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases trial is also a DNA vaccine.
