8 For years, scientists have warned the Nipah virus a brain-swelling disease 75 times more deadly than COVID could be the next pandemic. Knowing that this fruit bat-borne virus has the potential to trigger an epidemic, researchers at the Uniformed Services University (USU) have long studied the virus and recently reported on the development of a single-dose vaccine that, in preclinical trials, has proven effective against it as early as seven days after immunization.
The Nipah virus first emerged in the late 1990s, causing serious disease outbreaks in humans and livestock in Malaysia and Singapore. More frequent and recent Nipah outbreaks in Bangladesh, the Philippines and India have resulted in acute respiratory distress syndrome and encephalitis, person-to-person transmission, and greater than 75 percent case fatality rates among humans (the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID and a fatality rate of less than one percent). Much like Nipah, the closely-r
Single-Dose Nipah, Hendra Vaccine for Humans Effective 7 Days After Immunization
Newswise Bethesda, MD A vaccine for use against the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses has demonstrated effectiveness in preclinical studies as early as 7 days following a single immunization, according to a new study, A Single Dose Investigational Subunit Vaccine for Human Use against Nipah virus and Hendra virus, published in the journal,
npj Vaccines, online February 8, 2021.
A collaborative group of investigators from the Uniformed Services University (USU), the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), and Profectus BioSciences, Inc. (now Auro Vaccines LLC), carried out two preclinical studies of a Nipah and Hendra virus vaccine. Their results show that a subunit vaccine formulated for use in humans is effective as early as a week after the vaccination is administered.