"Sick mice recovered" * Experiments on humans will soon be carried out * The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and mainly affects a weak population * The preparation was produced from the blood of Israelis, which contains antibodies to the virus. Experiments conducted among mice were successful. Vaccine experiments will soon begin in the USA as well
Alex Doron, Maariv; Ofer Adrat, a system and voila!
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Ofer Adrat, a system and voila!
Two Israeli researchers from Ben Gurion University and the Benes Ziona Biological Institute have developed a new vaccine for West Nile fever. Following the development, a clinical trial of the preparation will begin in the USA, in collaboration with the American National Institutes of Health, and the Israeli biotechnology company "Omerics".
The development of the preparation was done using mice that were infected with the virus. The mice were treated with an immunoglobulin preparation, extracted from the plasma fluid of blood donors, whose bodies have antibodies to the virus. Professor Bracha Reger, one of the developers of the drug, told the system, "Wala! news, because the preparation was produced from Israeli blood donors and not from Americans - because among the two populations - these antibodies are found only in the body of an Israeli person. The other developer of the preparation, Dr. David Ben Natan, said that the infected mice survived the disease after the treatment.
Yesterday it was reported that the Ministry of Environment experts discovered mosquitoes carrying the virus in a stream near Kiryat Bialik. Last week, a four-year-old toddler from Kiryat Ata was hospitalized after contracting a virus. A doctor at Rambam Hospital in Haifa told "Maariv" that this is the first case this year in which a child is attacked by the virus.
"The vaccine outlines a path for the treatment of an incurable disease"
West Nile fever is caused by a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes from migratory birds to poultry, domestic animals, and humans. The virus causes the appearance of fever and rash (fever) mainly in a healthy population. Among weak and elderly populations, the virus may cause acute encephalitis and death. In 2000, the fever also broke out in Israel, causing deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations.
The study was recently published in the scientific journal Journal of Infectious Diseases and its importance lies in the fact that it outlines a quick and immediate way to treat an incurable disease, which spreads rapidly and can destroy many spaces. As part of the clinical trial, the product will be tested in American patients, who developed meningitis as a result of infection with the West Nile virus.
Israeli researchers: We found a vaccine for Nile fever
Alex Doron, Maariv:
Has the danger of West Nile fever passed? Researchers in Israel hope so, after developing a vaccine for the deadly virus. The fever, transmitted from poultry by mosquitoes, has caused a number of deaths in Israel and around the world in recent years. However, recently in Israel they succeeded in creating a unique vaccine, which contains antibodies from the plasma of Israeli blood donors.
The vaccine, the result of the research of Prof. Bracha Reger from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Dr. David Ben-Nathan from the Biological Institute in Nes-Ziona, was given to sick laboratory mice, and they survived the disease.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved to try it on humans as well, and soon trials will be conducted in the United States, under the supervision of the Israeli biotechnology company Omrix.
It should be noted that West Nile fever does not usually cause death, but the elderly and people with immune system problems may suffer from severe and fatal complications. Until the end of the 90s, outbreaks of the disease were mainly limited to Africa and East Asia, but in recent years it has also affected Western Europe, the United States and Israel. In Israel, the peak was in the summer of 2000, when hundreds of patients were hospitalized.
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