New vaccine's robust antibody response.

• Position: CHIKUNGUNYA

An experimental vaccine to prevent the mosquito-borne viral illness chikungunya elicited neutralizing antibodies in all adult volunteers who participated in an early-stage clinical trial conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The most distinctive symptom of chikungunya infection is severe joint pain accompanied by headache and fever. There currently are no vaccines or specific drug treatments for it. First identified in East Africa in the early 1950s, chikungunya virus caused sporadic illness in Africa and large urban outbreaks in Thailand and India in the 1960s and 1970s. It first appeared in the Western Hemisphere in late 2013.

As of August, more than 570,000 confirmed or suspected cases had been reported throughout the Americas. In the continental U.S., 484 cases have been reported, and the first two locally acquired infections were detected in Florida in mid July.

"The two species of mosquito that spread chikungunya virus are found in parts of the continental U.S., so it may just be a matter of time before this illness gains a foothold here," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci. "Therefore, it is prudent to begin addressing this emerging public health threat with the development of vaccines, such as this one."

"The candidate vaccine prompted a robust immunological...