The Race against time for Zika virus vaccine

     What started off as Dengue-like fevers has now been labelled one of the most dreaded diseases spread by the Zika virus, across the Latin American countries. The virus has creeped at an alarming rate into as many as 22 countries and territories in close contact with the Latin Americas. For the same reason, it has been declared by the World Health Organization as a global health emergency.

Medical professionals, scientists and pharmaceutical giants across the globe have initiated their research and development process as quickly and steadfastly as they can. The United States government along with the other international governments are striving to develop a fightback formula to stop the virus from spreading and to eradicate the disease from its roots.

Three pharmaceutical companies are currently pursuing the case; GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical big-name, Sanofi, the French medical company and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, the American drug developers. Since all of these companies have developed vaccines and medicines for similar diseases spread through mosquito bites, such as Dengue, Chikungunya and West Nile virus, they all have a basic foundation to start their research and clinical trials. 

A group of scientists from Hyderabad, India, claim to have developed two candidate vaccines to prevent Zika virus. The lab called Bharat Biotech International Limited, had apparently begun developing the virus almost a year prior to the recent outbreak of the virus into other countries.

As much as the need to develop vaccine is at an all-time high, it is agreed upon that proper research, development and approval of a completely safe, effective and powerful vaccine may take several years. As opposed to the time consuming traditional live or killed virus vaccinations that may take as long as 10 to 15 years to develop, the international drug manufacturers are focussing more on DNA-based vaccines which do not take as much time and are potentially less difficult or complex to develop.

As of now, scientists have confirmed that the virus spreads through mosquito bites, sexual intercourse and blood transfusion. The most common symptoms in an affected adult are fever, rashes, joint/muscle pains or reddening of the eyes.

Even though Zika affects adults only mildly, a lot of babies born to infected mothers appear to have developed a birth defect known as microcephaly, where the babies’ heads are unusually smaller than their body, which may also cause brain damage. Although no direct scientific evidence has been collected, medical professionals believe that the connection is evident enough. Even if a vaccine is developed soon enough, testing on pregnant women seem to raise a great ethical question towards medical science.

Tourists visiting the Latin American countries and those who are coming back from the same areas are given warnings and medical tests have been made compulsory. 

                                                                                                             J. Maria David