Zika vaccine set to be tried on humans

Two potential Zika vaccines will undergo trials on humans within six months after scientists said they could offer complete protection from the mosquito-borne virus.

US military researchers and academics at Harvard University made the announcement after successfully testing the treatments on mice, finding the animals remained protected from Zika after inoculation.

Published in the Nature journal, the study was hailed by scientists as a “significant step”. In pregnant women infected with Zika, babies can suffer shrunken heads and other major birth defects. One vaccine used “genetic snippets” from a Zika strain from Brazil. The second was made from a purified, inactivated strain that had been present in Puerto Rico.

Colonel Nelson Michael, joint leader of the project, said: “The critical first step has …given us early confidence that development of a protective Zika virus vaccine for humans is feasible.”