A new vaccine, so far only tested on monkeys, appears to provide protection against the world's most dangerous viral diseases, Ebola, Sudan virus, Marburg, and Lassa virus.
Please note that this vaccine is still in the initial test stages and is not ready for human use but the fact that it works on monkeys is very encouraging, especially considering the high mortality rate of these horrible diseases and the relatively easy spread from human to human.
Climate change is causing insects to spread to new regions and increase in numbers because milder winters mean more eggs survive the winter so even regions of the U.S. which would normally be safe from these jungle- born, but sometimes mosquito-borne diseases are becoming vulnerable.
Since there is virtually no treatment for these hemorrhagic (internal bleeding) diseases if a massive breakout was encountered even an advanced country, vaccines are critical and the best protection is to vaccinate those Africans who are in the rural villages which are most susceptible to initial outbreaks.
Therefore this report published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is very encouraging.
The work on this VesiculoVax vaccine is being done at The University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston) and Profectus BioSciences of New York with funding from NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) division and Redeemer’s University in Nigeria.
Twenty vaccinated animals and 12 unvaccinated monkeys were all infected with multiple strains of the hemorrhagic viruses, including some currently spreading in Africa.
The dozen untreated macaques contracted various diseases while 19 of the vaccinated animals did not develop any of the infections and the final one of 20 merely developed a detectable level of Lassa in the blood but did NOT develop the disease.
"R Cross et al. Quadrivalent VesiculoVax vaccine protects nonhuman primates from viral-induced hemorrhagic fever and death. Journal of Clinical Investigation. DOI: 10.1172/JCI131958 (2019)."
Please note that this vaccine is still in the initial test stages and is not ready for human use but the fact that it works on monkeys is very encouraging, especially considering the high mortality rate of these horrible diseases and the relatively easy spread from human to human.
Climate change is causing insects to spread to new regions and increase in numbers because milder winters mean more eggs survive the winter so even regions of the U.S. which would normally be safe from these jungle- born, but sometimes mosquito-borne diseases are becoming vulnerable.
Since there is virtually no treatment for these hemorrhagic (internal bleeding) diseases if a massive breakout was encountered even an advanced country, vaccines are critical and the best protection is to vaccinate those Africans who are in the rural villages which are most susceptible to initial outbreaks.
Therefore this report published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is very encouraging.
So far this investigative level vaccine has been tested on various animals, including macaques.
The work on this VesiculoVax vaccine is being done at The University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston) and Profectus BioSciences of New York with funding from NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) division and Redeemer’s University in Nigeria.
Twenty vaccinated animals and 12 unvaccinated monkeys were all infected with multiple strains of the hemorrhagic viruses, including some currently spreading in Africa.
The dozen untreated macaques contracted various diseases while 19 of the vaccinated animals did not develop any of the infections and the final one of 20 merely developed a detectable level of Lassa in the blood but did NOT develop the disease.
"R Cross et al. Quadrivalent VesiculoVax vaccine protects nonhuman primates from viral-induced hemorrhagic fever and death. Journal of Clinical Investigation. DOI: 10.1172/JCI131958 (2019)."
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