While more than 15 organizations are working on a vaccine, it may be that the availability of one may come too late to stem the current outbreak, Dr. Kieny said, according to The New York Times. A researcher from the Butantan Institute in Brazil who also spoke at the Geneva conference said that the timeline for a viable vaccine to be distributed could easily be as long as three years.
Additionally, Dr. Kieny said the link between Zika and Guillian-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause paralysis and is in some instances fatal, is highly probable. Definitive evidence of this link could appear within the next few weeks.
More articles on infection control:
New Zika research ‘first step’ in understanding virus’ impact on developing fetuses
Patients exposed to scabies at New Hampshire hospitals
Bacterial bloodstream infection linked to 18 deaths in Wisconsin
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