A New Hantavirus Vaccine Is in the Works

U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Moderna confrimed it has been working on the development of hantavirus vaccines in collaboration with the Vaccine Innovation Center of Korea University College of Medicine (VIC-K). This comes after an outbreak of hantavirus occurred on a Dutch cruise ship that sailed from Argentina and disembarked its passengers and crew in the Canary Islands on May 10. At least three people aboard the MV Hondius died, and several cases were reported as serious.

Moderna is the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that perfected messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the announcement that Moderna was developing a hantavirus vaccine using this same technology, the drugmaker's stock rose from $49 on May 7 to $55 the next day. But it is important to note that Moderna did not begin work on immunization in the wake of the outbreak at MV Hondius. In fact, the drugmaker undertook this collaborative project with VIC-K in 2023.

The Fight for a Vaccine

The hantavirus outbreak on the high seas has been one of the big international events of recent weeks, which means that many people around the world have only just learned of the existence of this virus—but it is not a newcomer. In fact, hantavirus has been a known pathogen for decades. Transmitted mainly through exposure to the droppings, urine or saliva of infected rodents, it can cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (prevalent in Asia or Europe) or hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (more common in the Americas). 

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