As mosquito-carrying diseases are becoming more and more frequent, scientists from the United States National Institutes of Health have developed a dengue vaccine proven the have promising effectiveness according to a study published on Wednesday.
Researchers involved in the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine say the new vaccine could be available nationwide in less than two years.
Apparently, researchers at the University of Vermont have finally found a dengue candidate proved to be highly promising regarding its effectiveness against the virus. Although the study was comprised of a rather small study – observing a trial with just 41 healthy volunteers involved – the results showed astounding results due to the 100 percent protection the vaccine offered to the volunteers.
While 21 of the volunteers who got the real vaccine injected were completely protected from the dengue virus, the other 20 who got the placebo shot showed dengue virus in their bloodstream, according to researchers at the University of Vermont. Perfectly healthy volunteers let the team of researchers inject them with the dengue virus for the study’s sake.
This process is called a human challenge and is basically a study where a healthy person deliberately gets the virus in order for researchers to develop new or improved vaccines from the volunteer’s body response. Although this type of test can be seen as unethical, the adults involved in the trial were reasonable and agreed to it beforehand.
Aged tests, new approaches
It’s worth mentioning that this ‘human challenge’ type of test has been used in the past to develop vaccines against several diseases, such as malaria and cholera. The new type of dengue vaccine called TV003 seems to offer complete protection from the virus transmitted by mosquitoes. Considering that this year has already brought a Zika outbreak across the globe, the newly developed vaccine from the U.S.
National Institutes of Health will surely result extremely useful once available. In addition to providing a 100 percent protection against the mosquito-transmitted dengue virus, the vaccine TV003 also offers strong protection against three other strains of the virus.
The developing and distribution of a vaccine that successfully prevents people from getting infected with the dengue virus, given that more than 2 million people suffer serious symptoms and over 25,000 people die due to the mosquito-transmitted virus.
Source: CBS News