Some 28 million Euros is to be spent on a European project to improve pertussis vaccines, it was announced yesterday.
About a quarter of the money for the project is coming from the foundation set up by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates.
Researchers want to know why current vaccines do not provide long-term protection against the disease, which has caused recent epidemics in Europe, Australia and the USA.
The project involves four universities in the UK, Oxford, Bath, Southampton and Imperial College, London, together with researchers in Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Zambia.
Professor Ronald de Groot, from Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, coordinator of the project, known as PERISCOPE, said: "Given the resurgence and changing epidemiology of pertussis in industrialised countries and the persistent low level of vaccination coverage and high infant mortality caused by pertussis in low income countries, PERISCOPE represents a concerted effort aiming to accelerate the development of improved vaccination strategies that ensure solid, long-lasting protection against infection.
“This implies, first and foremost, that we need to gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis and underlying mechanisms of the infection to be able to identify novel vaccine candidates."
He added: "However, it is equally important to rebuild the ecosystem for pertussis research and the technical infrastructure needed in Europe to successfully evaluate those novel candidates."
Leave a Reply