Good and Bad News on Chikungunya

FAIRFAX, Va. (August 5, 2014) – A lab at North Carolina State University is on the fast track to a possible vaccine for chikungunya. The scientists were originally working on a vaccine for dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease, and they applied their research to chikungunya.

The vaccine saw positive results when tested on mice, and it received a good review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The team hopes to soon move into the nest stage of testing, which means testing with human subjects.

Unrelated to the university's research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that the recent moratorium placed on the CDC's Atlanta headquarters has reduced the center's ability to test possible cases of chikungunya. This could lead to delays in diagnosis and tracking the spread of the virus.