The rare and deadly Marburg virus has appeared in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania recently, but biotech scientists are racing to develop vaccines that may neutralize the disease, Bio.News reports.
What is Marburg? Related to Ebola, the hemorrhagic virus has a fatality rate of up to 88% and is so deadly it tends to burn out before reaching pandemic level.
How big is the outbreak? In Tanzania, eight cases were confirmed in March, and five of those patients died by April 5. In Equatorial Guinea, 29 Marburg deaths are suspected since the virus appeared in January. The virus can incubate for up to 21 days, so it’s not certain the outbreak is over.
What’s being done? Global health officials are supporting research and working with the biotech industry on developing vaccines, with 28 candidates listed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
How’s that going? One candidate, the cAd3-Marburg vaccine, proved safe and produced an immune response in a phase 1 trial of 40 adults.
What’s next? “While early trials of the vaccine are promising, there is still a way to go to get a vaccine to market,” Bio.News reports. Further trials, and tests during an actual outbreak, face supply chain and logistics hurdles.
Read more in Bio.News.
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