2023-06-13 10:58:38
Wopossibly the vaccine called VLA1553 will be the first to protect against the viral disease Chikungunya: This is an “excellent candidate” for preventing the disease, writes a team of Austrian researchers from the manufacturer Valneva in the journal The Lancet. As part of the study, around 3,000 US volunteers received the vaccine and around 1,000 a placebo. Because outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease are difficult to predict and studies on immunization protection are correspondingly difficult to conduct, the study did not test whether VLA1553 protected against disease, but measured antibody levels in 266 of the vaccinated subjects.
Of these, 263 – i.e. 99 percent – of the test participants had sufficiently high values, according to the publication. Although these dropped in the weeks after administration, 96 percent still had protection after six months. Two subjects had more serious side effects that the study said were related to the vaccine and went beyond normal vaccine reactions, but these disappeared over time. The number of miscarriages was slightly higher in the vaccinated group, but a link with the vaccine is unclear. An independent panel showed no safety concerns.
Several vaccines under trial
Chikungunya fever, for which there is currently no specific drug, occurs again and again in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and America, as well as in southern Europe as a result of climate change. It lasts for a few days and is sometimes accompanied by severe muscle and joint pain – the word Chikungunya, which comes from a Tanzanian language, means “the crooked one”. The pain can last for weeks and months, sometimes even years. Fatalities are rare.
The live vaccine given once cannot be given to pregnant and immunocompromised people. In order to be able to contain the disease well, it would also have to be given to children who, like the elderly, can become more seriously ill – a corresponding study is currently being carried out in Brazil, where the virus occurs. Other vaccine candidates are also being tested at the moment and have not yet been approved either.
“The strong immune response after a single dose is encouraging,” Annelies Wilder-Smith, an infectiologist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Heidelberg University Hospital, who was not involved in the study, told the Science Media Center. She sees the vaccine as well tolerated. The tropical medicine specialist Peter Kremsner from the University Hospital in Tübingen takes a similar view. Although the data on antibody levels say nothing about real protection, it is known from other studies that this is linked to prevention of the disease. However, it is unclear to what extent VLA1553 also helps people who have previously suffered from Chikungunya.
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