By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Researchers at the University of Oxford on Monday launched a Phase 1 trial to test a new vaccine against plague.

Bipolar staining of a plague smear prepared from lymph aspirated from an adenopathic lymph node, or bubo, of a plague patient./CDC

Based on the ChAdOx1 adenovirus viral vector platform also used in the successful Oxford coronavirus vaccine, forty healthy adults aged 18 to 55 will receive this new vaccine in order to assess side effects and determine how well it induces protective antibody and T cell responses.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said:

‘The coronavirus pandemic has shown the importance of vaccines to defend populations from the threat caused by bacteria and viruses. Plague threatened the world in several horrific waves over past millennia, and, even today, outbreaks continue to disrupt communities. A new vaccine to prevent plague is important for them and for our health security.’

Probably the most well-known example of plague is the Black Death of the 1300s; this form of the bubonic plague was the biggest global pandemic in history and killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Read more at University of Oxford