MERS Virus Update: First Vaccine Set For Human Trials Within The Year

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) or MERS-CoV is a severe illness caused by the coronavirus. It affects one's respiratory system, lungs and breathing tube. Most MERS-inflicted individuals develop a severe acute respiratory illness with manifestations of fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The center reveals that in every 10 patients reported with MERS, about three to four of them die. That is how fatal the disease is.

MERS was first reported in Saudi Arabia in September 2012. According to Global News, 480 people have died in the country since then. Just recently, one of Saudi's largest hospitals closed an emergency ward after at least 46 individuals contracted the disease.

Dr. Hanan Balkhi disclosed that of the 46 infected at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, 15 were medical staff. The report suggested that the ward would be closed in the next two weeks, and patients would be transferred to other hospitals.

Amidst the growing cases of MERS, there is still good news. According to SciDevNet, the first vaccine candidate against the disease has successfully worked in mice, camels and monkeys, which will pave way to human trial next year.

According to the report, the DNA vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. While conventional vaccines involve injecting a live virus or foreign protein, which generates a protective immune response in the body, the new vaccine works by injecting a DNA sequence that codes a MERS antigen and depends on the patient's body to develop the protein. The immune system reacts to the antigen by creating antibodies that defend the body from future infection.

"Unlike attenuated vaccines, which are essentially weakened live viruses, there is no possibility through mutation for reversion into a live replicative virus," says Karuppiah Muthumani, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the study's lead authors.

A single dose of vaccination protected eight rhesus monkeys from contracting the disease, and a similar response was observed in the three camels treated with the DNA vaccines.

David Weiner, one of the study's authors, reveals that U.S. business, Inovio, and Korean company, GeneOne Life Science, are preparing clinical trials. They are scheduled to take the vaccine "into human safety and efficiency studies by the end of 2015."

Rana Sidani of the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean office says that a vaccine is needed as soon as possible because MERS is rampant and millions of Islamic pilgrims visit the country. 

"We have ways to take care of people and help them to recover more quickly but we don't have specific vaccines and medicines, as yet," she said.