The Zika vaccine protects the mother and unborn baby, however, pregnant women need higher doses.

According to Science Daily, researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston showed, for the first time, that a single, higher dose of vaccination to a pregnant mouse safely protects both her and her fetus from the Zika virus. The researchers have all concluded that a single, less potent dose was not enough to protect the mother and her fetus. The research is currently available in full detail in Nature Communications.

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What is the Zika virus? The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was originally discovered in Uganda in the 1940s. The outbreaks of the Zika virus disease have been recorded in parts of Africa, the Americas, Asia and in the Pacific. Between the 1960s to 1980s, there were rare sporadic cases of human infections that were found across Africa and Asia, typically accompanied by mild illness.

The majority of people infected with the Zika virus do not develop or experience symptoms. Symptoms are typically mild that includes fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise, and headache, and usually last for 2to 7 days.

"Preventing birth defects in developing fetuses is an important goal of the Zika virus vaccine but studies on vaccinations in pregnant females have been lacking, raising a number of important questions that are critical to the clinical development and regulatory approval of Zika vaccines," said UTMB's Pei-Yong Shi, senior author and the I.H. Kempner professor at the department of biochemistry and molecular biology.  He added, "Could vaccination during pregnancy protect against infection and transmission to the fetus? Does pregnancy affect immune responses to Zika vaccination? Does maternal immunity from vaccination during pregnancy protect newborns against infection?"

In addition to finding solutions to protecting both mother and fetus, Shi explained that the researchers also learned that their live-attenuated vaccine has an excellent safety profile in pregnant female mice and her fetus. For example, they saw no negative effects on pregnancy, fetal development or infant behaviour. They also found that pregnancy weakens the mother's immune response to the vaccination,  so suggesting a higher dose of the vaccine or a more immunogenic vaccine is needed during pregnancy to protect the mother and unborn child. Taken together the results suggest that their vaccine may be considered for both pregnant and non-pregnant people.

The Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities in the expecting mother's developing fetus and newborn. The Zika infection in pregnancy also results in pregnancy complications such as fetal loss, stillbirth, and preterm birth. Now with this promising discovery of giving mothers higher doses, there is now hope to save both the mother and fetus safely.

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