“Results in animal testing have been very encouraging”.
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The almost yearlong study will include at least 80 adults at three study sites in the U.S. If the vaccine is proven to be safe, the NIH will begin the second part of its trial in Zika-affected countries early next year. After the first dose of the vaccine is administered, the volunteers will be observed for a period of 44 weeks.
“I may be the only member of Congress who has voted in favor of every single Zika funding proposal because for me this is not about politics it really has never been it’s about public safety”, Rubio said. Scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Centre developed the vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus earlier this year, the institute said. The bit of genetic material isn’t infectious; after injection, the genes prompt the body into an immune response that ultimately creates antibodies against the virus.
Florida has recently announced more than a dozen cases of locally-acquired Zika, making the issue more pressing than ever. All but the latest patient apparently had been infected in the Wynwood area. At least two other experimental Zika vaccines are in human studies already. Florida said it would make Zika testing available to all pregnant women at county health departments statewide at no cost.
“But we can not be complacent, because we do expect to see more Zika cases”, Obama said.
Two other experimental vaccines now in human trials in the U.S. and Canada are DNA vaccines. “Well, Zika is a serious threat to Americans, especially babies, right now”. The virus can cause severe birth defects. The reason: better insect control as well as window screens and air conditioning that should help curtail any outbreaks.
President Barack Obama in February asked the Republican-led Congress for about $1.9 billion in emergency funds to combat Zika domestically and overseas, but lawmakers have not passed funding legislation.
Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday urged Republican congressional leaders to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, but Republicans blamed Democrats for the inaction in Congress. The advisory came after four people contracted the Zika virus within an area of about one square mile in the Miami neighborhood.
“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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More than 1,650 people in the US have been infected with Zika, after traveling to other countries or through sex. The results suggest that each of the three approaches holds promise for designing an effective Zika vaccine, according to the authors. The bill included more than $700 million in budget offsets by cutting back funding for Obamacare in USA territories and shifting unused funds from previous health emergencies. These infections are thought to have occurred because the patients’ partners had traveled to countries where Zika is circulating, the CDC said. The virus can also be transmitted by sexual transmission, blood transfusion and from pregnant women to their fetuses.
