ASTRAZENECA TEAM HAIL JAB FOR DEADLY NIPAH VIRUS

The Oxford team behind the Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine has made a “big step forward” in efforts to develop a jab against Nipah virus, a disease with known pandemic potential and a fatality rate as high as 70 per cent.

In an early stage challenge trial on African green monkeys, the Nipah virus shot — which uses the same technology as the Oxford-astrazeneca COVID jab — triggered a “very robust protective immune response”, according to a paper published online this week, which is yet to be peer reviewed.

None of the monkeys who received the vaccine showed signs of disease, and researchers were unable to detect any infectious virus in all but one swab sample taken from the inoculated animals. Dame Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford's Jenner Institute and a key figure behind the Astrazeneca vaccine, said the results — which build on previous studies in hamsters — were “very impressive.”

“It's always a big step forward to show protection in non-human primates, as the disease is more similar to that in humans,” Dame Sarah said.

Plans are afoot to conduct trials on humans, though they have been delayed by the current pandemic.

There are no known treatments for Nipah virus, an infectious disease that rapidly attacks the respiratory and central nervous systems. The World Health Organization says it has the potential to trigger a pandemic and is a Top 10 “priority disease,” meaning there is an urgent need to develop vaccines.