Researchers ready trials for inhalable measles vax

Backed with funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a group of researchers say they're ready to launch human trials of a new inhalable measles vaccine that can be used to guard against the disease in poor countries.

"By taking one deep breath, a child could be efficiently vaccinated," researchers told the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. In order to combat measles in underdeveloped countries, the investigators say they need an inhalable vaccine that can be manufactured in powder form for easy transport.

To make the new vaccine, researchers took a weakened form of the measles virus and mixed it with tiny droplets of carbon dioxide, which was then dried into powder form. The hard part was keeping it cheap. But they were able to keep the cost of a single dose to 17 cents and developed an inhaler that costs 10 cents each. And the same technology, they add, could be put to use for influenza vaccines.

- read the story from Red Orbit

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