Medical Breakthrough: First Zika Vaccine Is Ready For Human Trial

Scientists around the world have been long trying to design a vaccine that could help control the menace spread of the Zika virus. The efforts made have been particularly substantial after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika outbreak as the public health emergency in February.

So far, the researchers have been able to decode the structure of the virus and actually figure out how Zika infected the fetus of the Zika-infected pregnant mother. Now, for the first time, a Zika vaccine has been finally approved for human trials.

According to reports, South Korea's GeneOne Life Sciences and Pennsylvania-based vaccine maker Inovio Pharmaceuticals have received approval from the regulatory agency in the United States to test their DNA vaccine on humans.

The DNA vaccine, dubbed GLS-5700, has been developed in an effort to curb the Zika virus outbreak. The vaccine makers are planning to conduct an early-stage study that will be initially conducted on 40 healthy recruits.

The first stage of the trial will primarily assess the safety of the vaccine, but it will also be used as a tool to assess the immune response generated by the vaccine. Inovio is planning to start the trials soon and is expected to report the trial results in the later half of the year.

Zika virus is a part of a larger group called flaviviruses. This group also included other dangerous viruses such as Dengue, Yellow fever and West Nile virus. The Zika virus has been associated with a rise in the number of a rare birth defect called microcephaly in which children are born with unusually small heads due to incomplete brain development.

Inovio is also working on the development of vaccines for a number of other devastating diseases that have spread their wings around the world, including Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).