Breathe easy, the South Korean public have been told. The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is over. There have been no new cases for 24 days, and now the prime minister is urging people to resume “normal daily activities”. In total, the outbreak has infected 186 people, killing 36.
There are currently no treatments for MERS, which can cause shortness of breath, fever and sometimes gastrointestinal problems. But progress is being made.
This week it was reported that an experimental vaccine seems to reduce symptoms of MERS in monkeys. The vaccine, the first to be tested in non-human primates, provoked the animals’ immune systems into producing antibodies that neutralize the virus.
However, it is difficult to tell how effective it really is because, unlike in people, the virus only triggers mild symptoms in the animals. “The controls didn’t become severely ill, so it isn’t possible to say with certainty how the data would translate to humans,” says Barney Graham of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, who is involved in the vaccine’s development.
MERS doesn’t spread easily between people outside hospitals, so any approved vaccine would probably be given only to healthcare workers, and people working with camels – the suspected source of the virus. Another option is to vaccinate the camels themselves, says Graham.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: First MERS vaccine to be trsted in monkeys shows promise
