Is there a hantavirus vaccine? Scientists race to develop one for new strain
Facebook
Twitter
Flipboard
Send
Reddit
Linkedin
Messenger
Telegram
VK
Bluesky
Threads
Whatsapp
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:
Copied
A deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has raised fears over emerging viruses with no cure or vaccine. The UK government had already commissioned researchers to develop what could become the world’s first hantavirus vaccine
Researchers are developing a new vaccine for a strain of hantavirus after a deadly outbreak on board a cruise ship raises fears about whether emerging viral threats could spark another pandemic.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The outbreak, which struck passengers on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, was caused by the Andes virus, one strain within the wider hantavirus group.
No vaccines or specific treatments exist for the virus at the moment, but health officials have said early medical support can improve survival.
Researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom had already been working on a new mRNA vaccine for another strain of hantavirus called Hantaan, before the outbreak.
The research team says the vaccine is new, and laboratory tests in animals have shown promising results.
Related"It's a completely new antigen and … it shows very good immunogenicity against hantaan diseases and we're hoping that this will be, a good antigen to use to produce, a future hantaan virus, vaccine," said Asel Sartbaeva, a chemist at the University of Bath and co-founder and CEO of EnsiliTech, a spinout company of the university trying to take the new possible vaccine to market.
The question now is whether the same vaccine technology could eventually help against the Andes strain responsible for the cruise ship cases.
But researchers are cautious about whether the vaccine could be used to curb the spread of the Andes virus.
"We don't know whether the antigen which we have developed will be useful against Andes (strain) at the moment. We're hoping that it will be, but obviously, until we have actually tested against the Andes virus, we will not know," said Sartbaeva.
In 2024, the UK government awarded the research team a contract to develop what could become the world’s first thermally stable mRNA vaccine against the Hantaan virus.
The vaccine uses a novel technology called ensilication, which allows it to be transported at higher temperatures than usual. That could be significant for mRNA vaccines, researchers say, many of which currently need to be kept at freezing temperatures.
"It's a technology which can be applied across many different vaccines. And in this case, we're applying it on this new, hantaan virus vaccine,” said Sartbaeva.
“We have already been able to bring it from the freezer from -70 to fridge to 2 to 8 centigrade, which makes it a lot easier to transport. And our hope is obviously to make it thermally stable for room temperature transportation in the future," she added.
RelatedNo need for ‘panic’
As of Tuesday, 12 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) had identified 11 cases, nine of them confirmed, and three deaths, all among passengers on the cruise.
The origin of the outbreak remains unknown, and it is not yet clear whether anyone beyond passengers on the ship has been infected.
However, the WHO has said there is "no sign" of a larger hantavirus outbreak following the evacuation of the last passengers from the disease-stricken cruise ship, according to comments made by its director at a press conference on Tuesday.
Sartbaeva said the lack of existing treatments reflects how rare the disease is, and stressed there is no need for “panic” or comparisons with a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related"It has happened previously, it's just it's a very rare disease which doesn't get a lot of attention usually,” she said.
“And it did happen on an isolated cruise ship. So, there was already naturally an isolation there, which meant that there shouldn't be further transmissions,” she added.
“There shouldn't be panic at the moment. It's not like coronavirus. It's not like the pandemic we saw in 2020 because it's not a disease which transmits very easily”.
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
Go to accessibility shortcuts Share CommentsRead more
