The National Institutes of Health are recruiting 60 volunteers to test a new kind of vaccination, which acts against mosquito’s saliva. This is a new approach that protects against multiple affections by getting the immune system to rev up in response to the mosquito bite. There are requirements to partaking in this experiment, however. For starters, the minimum age requirement for the experiment ranges from 18 years of age to 50. Next, any sex is eligible. They also want test subjects that are healthy. A male is eligible for the study if he agrees to practice abstinence or using a condom that includes spermicide with an acceptable form of contraception. It has to be used by any female partner from 4 weeks before the study start to 12 weeks after the second vaccine administration. Pregnant or currently breastfeeding women cannot be involved in the experiment, due to health risk. These are just a few of the examples of the requirements.
Mosquito-borne diseases have become a primary issue in the last few years. In 2015, there were about 200 million cases of malaria worldwide, which caused nearly half a million deaths. Most of the deaths were children ranging from the ages of 5 to 1. Mosquitos also carry other diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, Rift Valley fever, Japanese encephalitis, and Zika virus. So it’s safe to say that finding a vaccination will not be a complete waste of time. It will be vital for human survival.
The researchers will give the volunteers dummy shots or vaccine. The volunteers must then return back to NIH’s hospital in Bethesda, Maryland to be bitten by mosquitos through a special netted device. However, the mosquitos are infectious free. The volunteers will be tracked by the researchers through immune responses.
