Zika Vaccine: A Distant Dream?

The development of the Zika virus vaccine has been hindered by its complexity and doubts over its marketability

- Sachin Jagdale

The outbreak of Zika in Brazil has thrown up yet another challenge for the global health care fraternities, who were already bogged down with the Ebola epidemic, which mainly focused in the African region. Moreover, Zika could prove to be a bigger health threat than Ebola as it is comparatively more prevalent in various other regions of the world. According to estimates by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Zika virus transmission has been noticed in and around 50 countries globally. With no specific medicines available for treatment there was an urgent need to develop vaccines for the virus.

It is a race against time as the virus has slowly but steadily spread its tentacles. Though scientists have come up with various possibilities to develop a vaccine, it is still an uphill task.

Less familiarity and increased complexity

Zika symptoms are generally mild but it can cause devastating effects such as affecting pregnant women and causing Microcephaly, a severe brain malformation in the foetus. However, its quick transmission in various parts of the world has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare Zika as a global public health emergency. As mentioned earlier, developing a vaccine to tackle the growing incidence of the disease is of utmost importance. However, lack of enough information about the disease is proving to be a big hurdle.