Zika Archives

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Military personnel at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR ) are researching and developing vaccines that can save military and civilian lives from the threats of deadly viruses and bacteria.

There has been a lot of coverage in the news about the Zika virus. With U.S. service members deploying to areas where there is a danger of Zika, malaria and other dangerous pathogens, vaccines could be the key to not only keeping the troops healthier, but the civilian population as well.

Pharma companies Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Sanaria, in conjunction with WRAIR, are near ready to release their vaccines for malaria. But this wasn’t new territory for the institute: WRAIR has been a research partner in the development of every existing malaria medication on the market today, as well as the first effective licensed vaccine against meningitis in the 1970s.

“Every single licensed therapy for malaria has somehow made its way through Walter Reed Army Institute of Research at some point in its development,” said Kayvon Modjarrad, WRAIR’s director for emerging infectious diseases. “It was tested, validated and developed within our institution,” Modjarrad said.

WRAIR is the largest and most diverse biomedical research laboratory in the Department of Defense. The institute’s greatest resources are the dedicated scientists, technicians, and support personnel who make up the core of the institute.

WRAIR is working on vaccines for Zika. Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease that has appeared in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Private-sector pharmaceutical companies are not always in the financial position to pursue vaccine research, so WRAIR provides resources and support to advance vaccine research.

“By us funding further studies of the more-promising vaccine candidates, we can generate more data on how safe and effective they are,” said Paul Keiser, director of WRAIR’s viral diseases branch. “More data means less risk. And less risk makes it more likely that a drug company may pick them up.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve, and their families.

By Debbie Gregory.

More than 40 members of the U.S. military have contracted the Zika virus this year in countries where it is present, government officials said; among them a pregnant woman, for whom Zika can be particularly dangerous.

The cases, which include active duty, National Guard and reserve personnel, were acquired outside of the continental United States.

Nonetheless, the Defense Department is continuing to monitor U.S. military installations at risk for mosquito-borne diseases, according to Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Benjamin Sakrisson.

DoD did not provide details on the status of the expectant mother or her unborn baby. Zika has been linked to birth defects such as microcephaly; one study released in May by the Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health estimated that fetuses of mothers infected with Zika in their first trimester face up to a 13 percent chance of being born with severe brain abnormalities.

As of July 27, 1,658 cases of Zika infection have been reported in the continental U.S. and 4,750 in U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, according to the CDC. The cases include 433 pregnant women in the U.S., and 422 in the territories..

U.S. military installation managers began aggressively monitoring for the species of mosquitoes that can carry Zika and other diseases in March. There are almost 200 military installations in areas where mosquitoes capable of carrying Zika are also found.

Zika is primarily transmitted through Aedes mosquitoes, the same insects that spread the dengue and Chikungunya viruses.

Those infected with the virus who will get sick will experience flu-like symptoms, fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes that last up to a week. But for pregnant women, the virus carries far worse outcomes: Zika can cause microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers, a condition that stunts the growth of babies’ heads and can result in serious cognitive, neurological, and motor disabilities.

In addition to the troops diagnosed with Zika, seven military family members also have tested positive, also contracting the disease outside the continental U.S.

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