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Since the scientists for long had assumed that the Zika virus was so benign that it wasn’t worth the resources required to investigate treatment, the virus is now making its way across the globe uninhibited.

Moreover, people who get infected will never know it, and if they start showing signs of infection, such as a rash, red eyes, fever or joint pain, doctors have little to offer other than advice to stay hydrated or take Tylenol as needed.

Zika has not been widely examined, and while some early research noted that the virus could infect brain cells, the connection between Zika and microcephaly—a severe neurological birth defect—is relatively new. A vaccine or a drug for pregnant women would be a game changer.

Now, even though there are a number of Zika vaccines in the works, including those from Inovio Pharma, Themis and Sanofi, none are designed to be administered during pregnancy.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently tested the ability of two in-development vaccines to protect mouse fetuses whose mothers were infected while pregnant.

The team vaccinated groups of mice with one of the vaccines or a placebo. They

were then infected with Zika in early pregnancy. A week after infection, the researchers found that, among the mice treated with the subunit vaccine, more than half had no Zika RNA at all in their placenta and fetus; as for those given the live vaccine, 78% of placentas and 83% of fetuses showed no trace of viral RNA.

The vaccinated mice birthed pups with no detectable Zika virus in their heads and the unvaccinated mice carried much higher levels of Zika material.

The study is a step toward tangible protection for pregnant women, who risk fetal brain defects if they are exposed to the virus.

“The question is, ‘Would the immunity still hold up if the virus does not pass through the bloodstream?'” said Michael Diamond, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine at Washington University, in the release. “We think it will hold up, but that has to be tested.”

“In general, most doctors don’t want to vaccinate during pregnancy on the outside chance that the immune response itself could harm the fetus,” Diamond said. “But if you’re in an area where Zika is circulating, you might vaccinate during pregnancy because the risk of Zika infection is worse than some theoretical risk of immune-mediated damage.”

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