An international team of scientists are working to develop a vaccine against deadly hantavirus after an outbreak of the rat-borne virus on luxury cruise ship left three dead.
Currently there is no specific cure or vaccine approved for hantavirus, which, if it progresses to the more serious hantavirus pulmonary syndrome can kill around 40 per cent of patients infected.
Scientists based at the University of Bath have developed a new antigen against Hantaan disease, which originates from the Hantavirus group.
The vaccine has been tested in the lab as well as on animals, and according to a spokesperson, has returned ‘excellent’ immune responses.
But more work needs to be done, including rigorous clinical trials, before the vaccine can be approved for use.
Professor Asel Sartbaeva, who is involved in the project, said: ‘Obviously developing a vaccine would be amazing because then we can prevent instances of this disease happening or at least mitigate the really bad consequences of the infection.’
Currently, early medical intervention is the only way to combat the virus.
But often patients confuse the early symptoms of the disease with flu or Covid, not seeking medical support until the infection is in its later stages.
An international team of scientists are working to create a vaccine against the deadly virus
At this point, care typically involves oxygen therapy, mechanical ventilation and even dialysis to treat lung damage and kidney failure, which is another potential complication of the disease.
Hantavirus has become an international talking point following the mid-Atlantic outbreak on the MV Hondius earlier this week.
Experts don’t know if the outbreak was caused by a rodent contamination on the vessel itself or whether passengers were exposed to the virus before boarding. New reports suggest that some passengers visited a rubbish tip for a birdwatching trip before the ship departed, which might have exposed them to the virus.
If this hypothesis is correct, they wouldn’t have felt unwell until around a week later, by which time the ship would have sailed.
Hantavirus can often lead to two, more serious, illnesses that affect the lungs or kidneys, resulting in organ failure and even death. Both illnesses often start like the flu causing fever, fatigue and muscle aches.
In the early stages those infected with the virus may feel more tired than usual, before developing a fever and muscle aches – similar to the flu.
Then, depending on which strain of hantavirus a person is infected with, the disease progresses down one of two routes: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
As a rule, the Asian strains develop into the less serious HFRS.
However, not everyone who contracts hantavirus becomes seriously unwell and some people show zero symptoms at all.
Currently, two British people are self-isolating at home after disembarking the boat before it arrived at its final destination, with 20 more still on board waiting to be repatriated within the next few days.
Unlike some strains of the virus, the Andes strain – which has been identified on the stricken ocean liner – is easily transmissible between people, sparking fears that the outbreak could spread across the globe.
Now officials are scrambling to contact dozens of passengers who have already disembarked to encourage them to be tested for the virus and if necessary, to isolate themselves.
Symptoms of hantavirus can take up to eight weeks to appear, and often manifest as ‘flu-like’ However, they can rapidly progress and become deadly, causing acute kidney failure and internal bleeding.
It is this incubation period that complicates things and creates an opportunity for the virus to spread undetected until it’s too late.
The researchers started working on the vaccine before the latest MV Hondius outbreak, but the race is now on to get the vaccine approved.
They set out to develop a vaccine that doesn’t need to be stored at freezing temperatures, which makes transportation extremely difficult.
The process, known as insilication, involves encasing vaccines in tiny layers of material to make them resistant to heat changes.
The hope is that vaccines treated with thermal stabilisation will be able to be delivered by drone to those most in need when outbreaks happen.
