New Chikungunya Vaccine May Enter Markets Soon

Chikungunya may soon be conquered by a new vaccine. The experimental drug is entering clinical trials and may soon be marketed.

Chikungunya may soon be conquered by a new vaccine that has appeared in the medical horizon.

Chikungunya is a viral disease that has been plaguing India since 2006. It is a mosquito-borne disease that is charecterized by high fever and excruciatingly painful joints.The fever usually lasts for seven to ten days while the joint pain lingers for over three months or even more.

Chikungunya - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment. FAQs
Chikungunya is a viral disease spread by mosquito bites; it causes fever, severe joint pain and rash on the body. Chikungunya occurs in Africa, Asia and the Indian sub continent.

Researchers from the University of Texas, Colorado, University of Wisconsin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Alabama have been successful in creating a new vaccine against the chikungunya causing virus.

According to published information online in the journal “PLoS Pathogens” a single dose of the experimental vaccine was potent enough to protect lab mice from chikungunya infection.

Up until now, Chikungunya infection has no specific treatment except to treat its symptoms with paracetamol and fluids. But now preventive vaccination may soon be available against the disease. The new recombinant live-attenuated vaccine has been created by genetically modifying the Chikungunya virus.

About Mosquito Diseases
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The modified strain differs from the wild-type virus in two ways - a) it does not cause disease b) it is not capable of infecting mosquitoes.

The second trait of the modified strain is an important safety feature that ensures that it cannot be transmitted to non-endemic locations through travellers.

According to Scott Weaver, director of Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, "There's a real need for an effective vaccine to protect against this debilitating and economically devastating infection ".

"Everything we've seen so far suggests this vaccine candidate could fill that need. We need to slow this virus down in India and SE Asia, not just to protect the people there but to reduce the very real risk that it might become endemic here after an infected traveller arrives," Weaver adds.

First Animal Model of Chikungunya Developed
The first animal model of the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), linked with large-scale epidemics that spread to Italy and India in 2007 has been developed by Researchers.

The new vaccine is at an experimental stage and is expected to enter clinical trials in the next couple of years.

Source-Medindia