Covid vaccine can prevent deadly Nipah virus: researchers claim
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London: Scientists in the UK hope that coronavirus vaccine can fight the deadly Nipah virus, which proves fatal in 75 per cent cases, The Daily Star reports.
The researchers at the University of Oxford are in the process of trying the technology used for Covid vaccine to stem the Nipah virus.
The latest finding could lead to beginning a human trial for a vaccine against Nipha virus.
However, a similar attempt was underway as early as 2017 but was paused when covid-19 broke out.
Nipah virus, mostly found in Asia, can spread from animals like bats or pigs to humans alongside eating contaminated food or from human to human.
The virus could cause severe respiratory infection in humans, and fatal brain swelling leading to death in large number of cases.
First identified 25 years ago, there are no known treatments to fight it.
A new vaccine, currently known as ChAdOx1 NipahB, maybe the first the first in the event of proving its ‘safety and efficacy standards’, according to Express.co.uk.
The Oxford Vaccine Group is set to try the trail on 51 people aged between 18 and 55.
The vaccine is based on the same "viral vector" vaccine technology that University of Oxford and AstraZeneca used for Covid-19 vaccine.
More trails of the project lasting 18 months will also take place in countries where Nipah virus outbreak occurred.
‘Our work developing the Covid-19 vaccine will now help us prepare this Nipah vaccine for licensure, ensuring we're ready to prevent future outbreaks of this devastating disease from spreading,’Dame Sarah Gilbert, the main researcher, was quoted as saying.
