Military Doctors Race To Find Effective Zika Vaccine

With a bottle of frozen Zika stored at -80 degrees to keep the virus inert nearby, Rafael de la Barrera and a team of 10 scientists and technicians have been working full-time for the past six months trying to find a vaccine for Zika. A native of Colombia, where Zika has ravaged much of the countryside, Barrera explains “I have family members who are infected,” adding “This is one of the reasons why we spend hours and hours working on this.” The Zika virus, which presents no symptoms, cannot be currently prevented by medication or vaccines, and often causes birth defects such as microcephaly, a severe brain malformation. Working with the US Army, Barrera hopes that his current attempts at a Zika vaccine, which features a recipe that currently 140 pages long and filled with safety protocols, back-ups, and safety checks, will one day provide the key to solving the Zika puzzle.