But last week, Florida reported the first locally transmitted cases in the United States. DNA vaccines like this one do not contain infectious materials and have displayed high levels of safety in clinical trials for other diseases. “It is critical that we develop a vaccine against this disease, which has devastating consequences for the health of pregnant women and babies, and we are pleased to join this NIH clinical trial”. The trials are taking place in 4 different areas: Bethesda, Maryland, Baltimore, and Atlanta.
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After their first injection, participants of the study will return to check-ups for the next 44 weeks to evaluate their health and the vaccine’s effectiveness. “DNA or gene-based vaccines induce antibodies, but they also can activate the cell-mediated immune response, which ultimately could yield strong and durable protection against disease”. The vaccine will be applied into the deltoid muscle, located in the arm, near the shoulder. The host body will pick up the DNA from the pathogen and begin to formulate an immune response. The new vaccine candidate is similar to another NIAID developed for West Nile virus, which was deemed safe after a Phase 1 clinical trial. But it can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with small heads and partially developed brains, and death to affected fetuses.
Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to fight the virus.
The development of an effective vaccine to stop the epidemics and protect pregnant women and their foetuses, as well of the rest of the population, has since then been regarded as a priority by the scientific community. While it’s not likely to turn into a full-blown attack, the disease continues to infect many parts of the world, and researchers and doctors have been scrambling to find a vaccine to take on the virus.
Zika has been devastating for pregnant woman with the virus, with over 1,700 cases of microcephaly linked to it in the previous year.
The Zika crisis has created a race among some companies and academic groups to locate the cure of Zika, but a final result is not expected to be ready at least for 2 or 3 years.
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British virus expert Professor Ian Jones, from the University of Reading, said: “The demonstration of protection against Zika infection in rhesus monkeys is not unexpected but is nonetheless welcome as a further step on the road to a human vaccine”.
