Posted on 04/27/2006 11:21:41 PM PDT by neverdem
For the first time, an experimental vaccine against the deadly Marburg virus has been shown to work in monkeys even if the shot is not given until after the animals have been infected.
The virus, closely related to Ebola, causes fever and severe hemorrhaging and can be fatal within a week. Epidemics of the disease have occurred in Angola and elsewhere in Africa.
"Quite honestly, we were astonished," said Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert, a senior virologist at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., and an author of a study being published online today by The Lancet, a medical journal. "We never thought it would work that well for something acute like Marburg, where the infection happens so fast that you don't have time to intervene."
Not all vaccines are effective after a person or animal has been exposed to a virus; the ones that are include those for smallpox and rabies.
Although the vaccine is not yet ready for human testing, it has potential for use in people, researchers say. It would not be given routinely, because Marburg is rare, but could be stockpiled for emergencies.
The new finding means that one day it may be possible to immunize researchers infected in laboratory accidents, as well as health care workers and family members exposed to the virus while caring for the sick during outbreaks.
"It would be great to know you could do something" for exposed people, instead of waiting for them to get sick and then watching them die, Dr. Geisbert said.
The vaccine used in the study was reported to be successful in monkeys last June when it was given before they were exposed to the virus.
There is no cure for Marburg disease, and no treatment except for supportive...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That's the title in Lancet. It's not in PubMed yet. No abstract is available.
ping
ping
Wow!
The article gives no details on how they did it. How is it even possible?
It would seem that the ability to produce an anti-viral vaccine is accelerating rapidly.
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Thanks. Interesting. Now if they could only perfect a vaccine for the viruses that cause EIA and AIDS.
EIA?
What is equine infectious anemia?
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