First Chikungunya Vaccine Developed in USA

Researchers in the United States have developed a Chikungunya fever vaccine using insect-specific viruses which do not affect people. The vaccine is safe and effective. The findings were published in Nature Medicine. The vaccine produces a strong immune defence protecting mice in addition to nonhuman primates from exposure to the Chikungunya virus. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, senior author, Scott Weaver ‘the vaccine offers efficient, safe and affordable protection against Chikungunya and builds the foundation for using viruses that only infect insects to develop vaccine against other insect-borne diseases.’ The Eliat virus was used as a vaccine platform as it has no impact on people and only on insects, and was found to be identical structurally to the chikungunya virus.

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