GENEVA (AP) – Possible Zika vaccines are at least 18 months away from large-scale trials, the World Health Organization said Friday, while advising pregnant women to consider delaying travel to areas where the mosquito-borne virus has turned up amid concerns it may be linked to abnormally small heads in newborn children.
Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director-general for health systems and innovation, says the U.N. health agency’s response is “proceeding very quickly” and that 15 companies or groups have been identified as possible participants in the hunt for vaccines.
“Our knowledge of what is currently in the pipeline tells us that it will take approximately 18 months before a vaccine can be launched into large scale trial to demonstrate efficacy,” Kieny told reporters in Geneva.
Concerns have grown in recent months about a Zika outbreak that has affected at least 33 countries – mostly in South and Central America. In Brazil, an epicenter of the outbreak, the spike in cases has coincided with a mysterious rise in cases of microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, in newborn children.
WHO believes the link between the virus and microcephaly in some newborns is “more and more probable,” Kieny said, but it will likely take “weeks to a few months” to determine whether a firm link exists. Agency officials had previously said they believed it would take at least six months.