Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said clinical trials on a vaccine for the virus may be delayed because the National Institutes of Health will run out of these repurposed funds by the end of this month. It is meant to promote an immune response that would protect against the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects, according to a statement from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “NIAID worked expeditiously to ready a vaccine candidate, and results in animal testing have been very encouraging”.
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Three different investigational Zika virus vaccine platforms-an inactivated virus vaccine, a DNA-based vaccine, and an adenovirus vector-based vaccine-protected against infection, induced immune responses, and produced no adverse side effects when tested in rhesus macaques challenged with the Zika virus, according to findings appearing August 4 in the journal Science.
The DNA contains no infectious material and can’t cause a Zika infection.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a news conference about the Zika virus, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016 in Doral, Fla. The disease recently spread to Florida with authorities saying this week that the number of confirmed mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika virus in the south-eastern state had grown to 14. All but the latest patient apparently had been infected in the Wynwood area.
A Pennsylvania company has already begun clinical trials of one vaccine, and the National Institutes of Health are launching them as well. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, told the Washington Post that he plans to travel to Wynwood on Thursday to review the situation first-hand, after 15 cases of local transmission.
“You can take every step you can trying to take care of yourself with your diet and exercise and going to your prenatal appointments, but now I have to worry about mosquitoes and going outside”, a four-months-pregnant Ardente said.
Most Zika infections have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus can cause severe birth defects. Republicans have said repeatedly that they will not return from their break to fix the measure, and say it’s Democrats’ fault for objecting to the riders.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIAID, said creating a safe and effective Zika virus vaccine is a public health priority.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan accused Democrats of obstructing the funding and said President Barack Obama’s administration has failed to spend existing funds to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne virus.
CDC director Tom Frieden acknowledged on Tuesday that the fight against mosquitoes in Miami is proving to be more hard than anticipated.
The Obama administration says it has filled the entirety of Florida’s request for help fighting the Zika virus, even as Sen.
“The Aedes aegypti mosquito does not travel more than 150 meters in its lifetime, and often quite a bit less than that”, Frieden said.
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“Now that the United States is in the height of mosquito season and with the progress in developing a Zika vaccine, the need for additional resources is critical”, Burwell wrote.
