Feds Testing Zika Vaccine

The war against the Zika virus has a new front — a vaccine developed by the National Institutes for Health has entered Phase I clinical trials.

Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the NIH developed the vaccine, which does not contain the Zika virus, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association. It is based on an altered DNA strand that prompts an immune response against the virus, and has shown strong promise in animal testing. “NIAID worked expeditiously to ready a vaccine candidate, and results in animal testing have been very encouraging,” reported NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

The vaccine will be tested on 80 volunteers, ages 18-35, at the NIH in Maryland. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 3,358 cases of Zika in the United States to date. With U.S. territories factored in, that number rises to 19,777.