It will take several years to create a vaccine against Hantavirus, the outbreak of which occurred on a cruise ship off the coast of Spain. This opinion was expressed on Thursday, May 14 by RAS academician, epidemiologist and Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Onishchenko.
– This is no longer a scientific problem as much as it is a technological problem. The expert quotes that if we follow all the standards for drug registration, these are pre-clinical trials, then three stages of clinical trials, the registration process itself will take several years. TASS.
According to him, the question is still open: What strain of Hantavirus should the vaccine be used against? Currently, there are more than 40 of them, but there is no need to develop drugs against all of them at once.
The epidemiologist also believes that the Andean Hantavirus variant is rapidly mutating and beginning to adapt to humans. Every year, strains change their sequence and find new ways to bypass human immunity.
In a conversation with Vechernaya Moskva, immunologist and allergist Vladimir Polybok explained how the new virus spreads and who poses the greatest danger to it.