WEDNESDAY, April 26, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- A vaccine has proved effective in preventing hemorrhagic fever in monkeys after they were exposed to the deadly Marburg virus.
Like the Ebola virus, Marburg causes internal bleeding at multiple sites in the body. Both viruses are considered to be potential bioterrorism threats. There are no drugs to fight infection with Marburg virus, and even treatment aimed at easing the illness' symptoms rarely work.
However, a team of American and Canadian researchers say they have created a vaccine by replacing a gene from a harmless virus with a gene encoding a surface protein on the Marburg virus.
In their study, reported in the April 27 issue of The Lancet, the researchers infected five rhesus monkeys with the Marburg virus and then injected them with the vaccine 20 to 30 minutes later. Three other monkeys acting as controls were infected with the virus but were given a vaccine without the Marburg protein.
All five monkeys that received the Marburg protein vaccine survived for at least 80 days, while the controls died within 12 days.
Previous research showed the vaccine could protect against Marburg hemorrhagic fever if it was given before infection. This new study suggests the vaccine may be an effective post-infection treatment for the disease.
The study team involved researchers from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada.
More information
The U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases has more about Marburg hemorrhagic fever.
