New York : An experimental dengue vaccine can fully protect healthy people who were intentionally infected with a weak form of the dengue virus in a human challenge test, says a study, reports IANS.
Forty-one healthy individuals, who have not been previously exposed to dengue, received either a single shot of the vaccine called TV003 or a placebo. They were then infected six months later with a weakened form of dengue serotype two virus, the hardest serotype to prevent.
While the 20 people in the placebo group developed mild symptoms like rash and low white blood cell count, all 21 vaccinated individuals developed none of these symptoms and were completely protected from infection.
The vaccine was well-tolerated in all volunteers, said the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. While only advanced clinical trials can establish a vaccine’s efficacy, human challenge studies could help identify promising vaccine candidates and eliminate poor ones from progressing to larger trials, the researchers said. “This work used a robust method which predicts a high likelihood of success for this critically important dengue vaccine,” said study first author Beth Kirkpatrick, professor at University of Vermont (UVM) in the US.
