Primate Studies Reveal The Long Term Efficacy Of Three Experimental Zika Vaccines
Primate Studies Reveal The Long Term Efficacy Of Three Experimental Zika Vaccines
Many people may feel as though the Zika virus is a forgotten and largely harmless mosquito-borne disease. Although there is no good reason to assume that the world will not see another outbreak of Zika, it can at least be said that the most Zika-affected countries will be prepared if the virus returns. If you were to ask an epidemiologist, entomologist or a public health professional if Zika will return, they would likely tell you that Zika will probably rebound in the years to come. Some experts are also concerned about possible genetic mutations that could render the Zika virus far more devastating. Luckily, billions of dollars have been poured into Zika research. This money has not been wasted either, as researchers have developed several Zika vaccines. The development of these vaccines has already been reported in the news. But only recently have researchers published a study concerning the long-term efficacy of three different Zika vaccines. It turns out that these three vaccines vary greatly in how effective they are at achieving their purpose.
A group of some of the brightest scientific minds in existence teamed up to determine the long term efficacy of three Zika vaccines. Researchers with Harvard Medical School, Walter Reed Army Institute, and MIT tested the three different vaccines on rhesus monkeys. The three vaccines work in completely different ways. One of the vaccines is DNA-based, another vaccine involves an injection of an inactive Zika virus sample, and the last method involves the “adenovirus vector-based” method, which is a viral component of the common cold. The DNA-based vaccine quit being effective a year after administration. Therefore this particular vaccine will likely be scrapped. The inactive Zika sample was seventy five percent effective after one year. But the adenovirus-based vaccine offered monkeys one hundred percent immunity against the Zika virus after one single injection. The researchers are not sure which vaccines will be most effective in humans, but the current pace of research into Zika vaccines is a good sign that humans will have an effective Zika vaccine in the near future.
Do you think that the adenovirus-based vaccine, which was the most effective vaccine in rhesus monkeys, will also turn out to be the most effective vaccine in humans?