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NewKerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=3Dfullnews&id=3D=74964
Vaccine against hepatitis E soon:
[India News]: New Delhi, Feb 20 : Vaccine against hepatitis E virus, the
most common cause of viral hepatitis in adults in India, may soon be
possible with several samples being developed worldwide while one by US
scientists has shown high degree of efficacy during trials, a researcher
said here.
Successful vaccines for prevention of hepatitis A and hepatitis B, the two
of her important pathogens found in developing countries, have been
developed and licensed and both have had an impact on the incidence of viral
hepatitis when used appropriately, Robert H Purcell from the Laboratory of
Infectious Diseases, US' National Institutes of Health (NIH) told a
symposium on viral hepatitis.
"There is also need for A vaccine against hepatitis E. Candidate vaccines
have been developed by expressing truncated forms of the virus coat proteins
in bacteria or insect cells," he said. These vaccines use "highly conserved
and highly imunogenic" region "ORF2" of virus.
"One recombinant hepatitis E vaccine has been developed by our laboratory.
It has successfully completed pre-clinical trials in rhesus monkeys," he
said.
It has advanced through phase II/II clinical trials and tested for efficacy
by the US army in a field trial in Nepal, he said, adding the pre-clinical
trials demonstrated that the vaccine has 100 per cent efficacy in monkeys.
The results of the human clinical trials have not been disclosed yet and are
being analysed. But preliminary evidence suggests a high degree of efficacy
for this vaccine, he said.
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