Health Breakthrough: Vaccines For MERS, Lassa Fever And Nipah Virus Now Underway

The vaccines for three deadly diseases namely the MERS, Lassa fever and Nipah virus are now being developed. A coalition of governments and charities have pledged an amount of $460 million to speed up the development of vaccines for the said conditions.

The new vaccines take about a decade to develop. They also cost hundreds of millions of dollars. This prompted the organizations to ask the World Economic Forum Davos for another $500 million for the new vaccines that are underway.

BBC reports that MERS or the Middle East respiratory Syndrome, Lassa fever and Nipah virus are "top of the list" of 10 priority diseases that the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified to be the next major outbreak. Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, the assistant director-general of the WHO, said that besides the known threats such as Ebola and others, there are also all those viruses that are known but are thought to be very benign. She further said that they could mutate and become more dangerous for humans.

Meanwhile, an initial investment of almost $500 million has been received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Britain's Wellcome trust and the governments of Japan, Norway and Germany for the development of new vaccines for the new infectious diseases. It was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos in Switzerland. This partnership is referred to as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations or CEPI, according to Washington Post.

Rebecca Katz, the director of Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Science and Security, said that the new coalition will just add much-needed resources to a hard problem. She also expected that they will not be detracted from other efforts' funding and resources.

The new vaccines are for MERS, which is a deadly respiratory virus that is spread by camels. It is first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and now in 27 countries including the United States. The Lassa fever is a virus that is found in West Africa and is spread by rats. Likewise, the Nipah virus is first identified in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999 and could be spread from animals such as pigs.