Vaccine For Dengue Virus May Become A Reality
Scientists said they found the “final puzzle piece” in creating a vaccine for the mosquito-borne dengue virus.
The dengue virus infects approximately 390 million people each year, and 25,000 of those infected die from dengue hemorrhagic fever.
The vaccine was developed by the National Institutes of Health. So far, it has proven to be 100% effective. Each of the 21 participants given the vaccine and later infected with a mild form of the virus did not notice any symptoms or show any signs of the infection in their blood.
The experimental vaccine will now move to phase three, a trial including 17,000 volunteers.
NIH officials said they hope this breakthrough leads to a vaccine for the Zika virus. Both the dengue and Zika virus are spread by the same mosquitos, and thereby circulating in the same regions – mainly the Caribbean and Latin America, and now the South Pacific.
