Zika vaccine 'at least 18 months away', as researchers query whether it is causing latest outbreak
The World Health Organisation has set out a rough timescale for developing a vaccine to combat the Zika virus infecting thousands in south America.
An outbreak of the virus is being blamed for thousands of babies being born in south America with abnormally small heads, or where the head stops growing after birth. The condition is known as microcephaly.
It is usually a rare condition, with one baby in several thousand being born with the birth defect. It can be caused by infections, severe malnutrition or exposure to toxic chemicals. Researchers are investigatings concerns that the latest outbreak is linked with the Zika virus.
The WHO has said symptoms of the virus are generally mild, but confirmed that a possible association had been observed between the unusual rise of Zika cases and microcephaly cases in Brazil since 2015.
Dr Marie-Paule Kieny said more than a dozen companies had begun developing a vaccine to combat the virus, but that vaccines were at least 18 months away from large-scale trials.
Reasearchers have reported that large numbers of babies with borderline normal head sizes were born in Brazil as far back as 2012. The Zika virus is thought to have entered the country two years later in 2014.
