Experimental Zika vaccine to begin human testing

Assuming this first round yields valuable results, further trials will see the vaccine given to people actually infected with Zika.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved clinical trials for a vaccine for the Zika virus. Zika has been linked to severe birth defects and a rare virus that can cause paralysis.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An experimental vaccine for the Zika virus is due to begin human testing in coming weeks, after getting the green light from USA health officials.

There could soon be a new weapon in the fight against the Zika virus.

For Zika, such a DNA-based vaccine may seem ideal over other vaccine strategies, such as vaccines that contain live, but weakened viruses. This has led to the distribution of 18 million doses of yellow fever vaccine in Angola, DR Congo and Uganda.

These initial advances have helped scientists come up with a promising Zika vaccine less than a semester after the World Health Organization admitted the disease was spreading at alarming rates. They previously collaborated to create vaccines for Ebola and MERS, both of which are being tested. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has also cooked up a DNA-based vaccine and has promising animal results. “The vaccine will be administered intradermally using the CELLECTRA electroporation system”.

GeneOne Life Science in Seoul operates the manufacturing plant in Texas where the vaccine is made. “As of May 2016, 58 countries and territories reported continuing mosquito-borne transmission of the Zika virus; the incidences of viral infection and medical conditions caused by the virus are expanding, not contracting”. The virus was first detected in Uganda and has quickly spread through Hawaii, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. No Zika test has received full FDA approval, but this emergency approval gives laboratories the latitude to run the test if (or when) an official Zika outbreak occurs.