Hantavirus vaccine could become routine travel jab after deadly outbreak, scientists say
Scientists in Bristol developing a vaccine for Hantavirus say they hope it could eventually become a routine travel jab after a recent deadly outbreak on a cruise ship.
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Three people died after an outbreak of Hantavirus on board the MV Hondius, which was travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.
Passengers from around the world were later quarantined. At a laboratory in Bristol, Professor Asel Sartbaeva from the University of Bath is leading work on a potential vaccine for the virus.
Professor Sartbaeva told LBC diseases such as Hantavirus have long been “neglected” by scientists.
Describing Hantavirus as a “horrendous disease”, she said her team has already completed some of the most difficult stages of vaccine development.
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“We have the antigen ready, so we've done the hardest part already.
“Obviously, we've done the testing in animals. The next step would be really to go into humans, to do the clinical trials and then to test that there are no side effects and it is as effective as it was in animals.
“Once we've done that, we can roll it out for people and that's approximately three to four years in the future.” Professor Sartbaeva said she hopes the vaccine could one day be offered in the same way as other travel jabs.
“I myself recently have been receiving a yellow fever vaccine before I was travelling. “In a similar fashion, I can see how in the future this could be one of the travel vaccines for people to get before they would be travelling somewhere where Hantavirus is prevalent.”
Professor Sartbaeva also warned diseases like Hantavirus are not receiving enough government investment.
“They've been neglected, these kinds of diseases, because there haven’t really been resources before.
"They're not very commercial because obviously these are the kind of diseases which occur in low-income countries.
“Preventing is always better than treating, a lot cheaper, a lot easier, and obviously the outcomes for people, for patients are a lot better if we can prevent diseases rather than treat people.
“So I would say to start with, government really needs to put more funding into the development of new vaccines.”
One travel agent in Bristol told LBC that wider availability of vaccines is “hugely important” to the industry.
A spokesperson for adventure travel firm KILROY said: “Safe and effective vaccinations that help mitigate these concerns are massive enablers of travel”.
The UK Health Security Agency told LBC: “While there is currently no licenced vaccine for use in the UK, we are developing one and have initiated a clinical trial funded by the UK Vaccine Network.
“This trial is in phase one and recruitment has already taken place.”