Written By Vanessa Kariuki ||
The Phase 1 study of the ChAdOx1 vaccine against Rift Valley fever, which demonstrated that it is safe and immunogenic in people, produced encouraging findings, according to a team led by Professor. George Warimwe.Â
As Rift Valley fever has been proved to be preventable in farm animals by the ChAdOx1 RVF vaccine in the past, ChAdOx1 RVF may be administered to humans as well as to animals.
‘The promising safety and immunogenicity results observed on the first use of ChAdOx1 RVF in humans are very exciting and suggest that single doses will raise immune responses that will be protective in Rift Valley fever epidemics,” Warimwestated.
Rift Valley fever is a mosquito-borne viral zoonosis that primarily affects domestic livestock (e.g, sheep, goats, and cattle) and humans in Africa and the Middle East.
The illness, which has a high mortality rate of 90% in young animals and a usual pregnancy loss rate of 90% in animals who are pregnant, was originally discovered in Kenya in 1930.
Although mosquito transmission does happen, direct contact with sick animal tissues has been predominantly blamed for spill over into human populations.
Human disease can vary greatly; while the majority of people will experience a self-limited febrile illness, it’s anticipated that 0–5–3% will experience severe symptoms, with as many as 50% of them.
Other severe Rift Valley fever symptoms, like meningoencephalitis and ocular pathology, can have crippling effects (like blindness), and infection during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.
For cattle, there are approved vaccines available, but there are no approved Rift Valley fever vaccines for human use.
The potential for Rift Valley fever to result in a public health disaster with serious health implications and significant economic impacts has prompted both the WHO and the African Union to identify the development of a vaccine for human Rift Valley fever as an urgent priority.
The goal of Rift Valley fever vaccine development has been to create vaccines that are both safe and highly immunogenic for neutralizing antibodies, which are linked to protection, as well as possessing other ideal product features specified by WHO
