Virus World

Nipah virus was discovered in 1998 after an outbreak in Malaysia. Since then, several outbreaks have been reported in Bangladesh and India. Although most outbreaks are relatively small, a very high case-fatality rate is reported (75%). Furthermore, human-to-human transmission has been reported. Currently, no approved vaccine or countermeasure exist. In this manuscript, we discuss a vaccine based on a chimpanzee adenovirus. Importantly, the vaccine vector (ChAdOx1) is in clinical trials. In the work presented here, we show that this vaccine is fully protective against both genotypes of Nipah virus. Furthermore, we observe partial protection against Hendra virus, a related virus. Antibodies produced upon vaccination with our vaccine alone are partially protective against Nipah virus. This is an important step forwards towards the development of an approved vaccine for Nipah virus.