"David" <medtools@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<WFu9b.18412$Aq2.13636@newsread1.news.atl.ear thlink.net>...
Not yet.
Israel has just found a vaccine for the West Nile Virus. I hope
they'll approve it for use fast.
< http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?...enV ersion=0&
Israelis develop West Nile vaccine
By ISRAEL21c staff September 07, 2003
Israeli microbiologists have developed the first passive vaccine
against the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, which has killed thousands
and infected many more around the world. In the U.S. alone, it has
killed 282 and infected 4,156.
The vaccine, called Omr-IgG-am, is effective for six weeks. It is
based on a protein group found in the blood's liquid component called
immunoglobulin, which is taken from blood donors found to contain
active antibodies against the virus, for which there is no available
cure.
"This group contains all the antibodies that a human develops in his
lifetime once he is exposed to bacteria, viruses and the like," said
team leader Professor Bracha Rager. Until recently she was chief
scientist of the Health Ministry, and is also a veteran researcher at
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's microbiology and immunology
department. Her collaborator in the research was Dr. David Ben-Nathan
of the Biological Institute in Ness Ziona.
The researchers succeeded in isolating the "defensive antibodies"
produced from a group of proteins taken from Israeli blood donors who
had come in contact with the virus. The antibodies were injected into
mice who had been infected with the West Nile virus.
The disease was eliminated in the intentionally infected lab mice, and
it has already promoted the recovery of a woman at Netanya's Laniado
Hospital.
As a result of their work, published in the July issue of The Journal
of Infectious Diseases, the vaccine is about to undergo clinical
trials at a number of American hospitals, under supervision of the US
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The trials are
being carried out in cooperation with the Israeli biotechnology
company Omrix, which has purchased the rights to manufacture the
vaccine.
Rager's team is currently working on an active vaccine that would have
a more lasting and powerful effect.
"The research is pinned on our success in proving the effectiveness of
the antibody
treatment against the disease. Not every disease can be treated in
this way," Rager said. "In the future, we will know how to produce
immunoglobulins that will include the precise amounts of defensive
antibodies and it will be possible to build a standard for the
treatment of the disease. In addition, we will attempt to develop a
vaccine for people who have not yet been infected by the disease."
Until the late 1990s, West Nile virus was limited to Africa, East
Asia, parts of the Middle East, and Europe. But in 2000, there were
serious outbreaks in the US, Israel, and other countries. In Israel, a
few dozen people died and hundreds were infected.
The disease appears as a flu-like condition, and is harmless to
healthy people. But it can be deadly in individuals with weak immune
systems, such as the chronically ill, the elderly, and young children.
The virus is found mostly in wild birds and sometimes mammals. People
become infected by mosquitos which bite them after biting the mammals
or birds. Infected people are liable to die from complications such as
meningitis and encephalitis.
This year, despite the heavy rains, there have been only four reported
cases of infection here. The authorities credit improved draining of
standing water and insecticide spraying, as well as better protection
(screens, mosquito repellant, proper dress) by those at high risk.
Rager told The Jerusalem Post that the initial results elicited
skepticism among doctors, because the vaccine was tried on only a few
patients. But the recovery of the woman from a coma after being
vaccinated, despite having contracted chronic lymphocytic leukemia,
led to the decision to conduct clinical trials.
Six other very sick local West Nile virus patients have been treated,
and two (including a lung transplant patient) improved.
"If the high incidence of severe West Nile virus observed in 2002 in
North America is repeated in coming years, there may exist a unique
opportunity to determine whether early treatment... with [the]
specific antibody is beneficial," said NIH researchers. Rager added
that approval of the vaccine is likely to be swift, not only because
immunoglobulins are well known and used for other diseases, but also
because the virus is spreading rapidly around the world.
