Done with monkeys, now with humans-The vaccines are now being tested on humans and hopefully, it will work to fight the devastation caused by Zika virus.
The journal Science recently presented three types of vaccines were designed to block the Zika virus and they all worked on test monkeys. Now the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has finally injected two human volunteers for the clinical trial of DNA-based Zika vaccine.
Director Anthony Fauci says that 80 more volunteers ages 80 to 35 will also be injected with vaccine by the end of August. This will be done at three study sites located in Maryland, Bethesda, Atlanta and Baltimore, as reported by LA Times.
So what does the vaccine do? There is nothing to worry about the vaccine causing an infection because of the Zika proteins that communicate to the body and "does not contain infectious material," based on the results found by NIAID.
The priority, for now, of the vaccination will be women of childbearing age along with their sexual partners. Zika infections are typically asymptomatic. Nonetheless, some people get mild illness lasting for about a week. Zika virus during pregnancy on the other hand can cause severe fetal defects of the brain and other organs. The vaccination to women will be a great help because this way, the unborn babies will be protected from birth defects like microcephaly, small brains, impaired vision, hearing and other development disorders.
Zika virus has been trying to invade the world since over forty years now. The full blast just seem to be happening these days. America is in huge emergency and the success of the vaccination will be a great relief for the whole nation. Around 30 states now is experiencing the outbreak while most governments become too wary of fighting the virus through spraying around smokes that will kill as much mosquitoes as possible.
