MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus similar to the one that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
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But amid fears that the annual arrival and departure of pilgrims could spread the virus around the globe, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have made a breakthrough in the fight against MERS, which hasclaimed over 480 lives since it was discovered in 2012.
“In addition, the vaccine induced antibodies that are linked with protection in camels, a species that is thought to be a major source of transmission to humans in the Middle East, showing that this vaccine could be deployed to break this link in the MERS transmission cycle”.
According to a report by Healthline, Dr. David B. Weiner, professor of pathology and lead author of the research, said the vaccine also helped in stopping the transmission of the disease by creating antibodies in the blood from camels. An estimated 1,400 people have contracted MERS infections since 2012, and more than 500 people have died from the virus.
The vaccine was able to prevent MERS disease in the monkeys and offered benefit to 100 per cent of the animals in this study in terms of minimising symptoms. They are scheduled to take the vaccine “into human safety and efficiency studies by the end of 2015”.
Currently, there is no treatment or vaccine available for MERS.
Collaborators include researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, the University of Washington, and the University of South Florida. One of the more pronounced outbreaks was recorded in South Korea earlier in the year, which resulted in over 181 infections and over 30 deaths.
Tourists wear masks as a precaution against the MERS virus at the Incheon global Airport on June 6, 2015 in Incheon, South Korea.
MERS coronavirus infections have soared in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, killing three people and forcing a Riyadh hospital to close its emergency ward, officials and newspapers said Thursday. It has occurred in the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, and in the United States.
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At the peak of the Mers outbreak, infections were jumping from bed to bed in crowded hospitals, and medical workers were falling sick because of lax sanitary standards.
