The question is: How long are we going to wait around and just follow these outbreaks before we get serious about making vaccines? there is no sign of MERS going away. It's been around since 2012. And there is really clear evidence now of human-to-human transmission.

Adrian Hill

Categorized in : Company News

It's a difficult disease to deal with. The tools we have are modestly effective but drugs and insecticides wear out -- after 10, 20 years mosquitoes become resistant. There's a real concern that in 2020s, [ cases ] are going to jump back up again.

The real problem arises if it's given at 6-12 months. The cost of delivery will be greatly increased and we just don't know how feasible extra immunization time points will be, sadly, the data show the protection in younger infants, who we immunize routinely, is very modest, but it is better in older infants.

The real problem arises if it's given at 6-12 months. The cost of delivery will be greatly increased and we just don't know how feasible extra immunisation time points will be, sadly, the data show the protection in younger infants, who we immunise routinely, is very modest, but it is better in older infants.

If it continues, we will get an answer, and that would be very us... by Adrian Hill

If it continues, we will get an answer, and that would be very useful indeed.

The chances are that South Korea will control it, but should we be taking this risk? No. Should we have made a MERS vaccine? Yes. Could anyone have afforded it? Yes, the government of Saudi Arabia. So should something be done? Yes, someone should go and develop a MERS vaccine sooner rather than later.

If a single dose of an Ebola vaccine is sufficient, it makes absolute sense to use that. But it also makes sense at this early stage of trials to see if a second booster vaccine can greatly increase the levels of immune responses produced.