NIH researchers are now testing an experimental vaccine, one that will be injected into participants’ arms and produce the proteins that are associated with the Zika virus. “And now the blood, the tainted blood”, Nelson said, referring to the prospect that the Zika virus could infect the donated blood supply and move elsewhere that way. Reports state that one of these vaccines is scheduled to enter human studies in 2016.
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The virus recently has made its appearance in US territory with the first 15 confirmed homegrown cases in the Miami neighborhoods of Wynwood and Edgewater.
In the Wall Street Journal, Ron Klain, former White House Ebola response coordinator, suggested that the lack of urgency on Zika may be because the disease is largely out of sight: “Zika is easily underestimated because symptoms are not obvious, and the most grave health outcome – birth defects in babies born to infected mothers – occur months in the future”. Each participant will be injected with the vaccine – which does not contain infectious material – at the beginning of the study, according to NIH.
USA health authorities announced this week the start of the first safety trials for a vaccine against the Zika virus just as the disease has appeared in Florida with at least 15 people having been infected by locally-hatched mosquitoes. As of Tuesday, Florida health officials said that 15 people had been infected.
“Despite the daily use of spraying, the vector control experts there were still seeing new larval mosquitoes and moderately high Aedes aegypti counts, which is not something that we had hoped to see”, Frieden said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved clinical trials of an experimental vaccine for the Zika virus in late July. It can also cause microcephaly in the fetus.
“We follow them very closely”, she said. This is why, after the vaccine trials, girls and young woman would be the first to receive the treatment, especially those in areas that have been hard-hit by the virus. The piece is so small that it is not infectious. “It could be because they’re resistant to the insecticide being used or that there’s still standing water that they’re breeding in”, Frieden said.
All are transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which lives in the tropics and can summer in the United States.
According to the CDC, the Zika virus has affected 52 countries and territories around the world.
The CDC this week issued a travel advisory to part of Miami, telling pregnant women they should not travel to parts of the city where Zika has been found.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases.
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This Q&A will tell you what you need to know about Zika.
