By Jennifer Rigby(Reuters) - A pill for dengue fever developed by Johnson & Johnson appeared to protect against a form of the virus in a handful of patients in a small human challenge trial in the United States, according to data presented by the company on Friday.
In human challenge trials, researchers intentionally expose healthy volunteers to a pathogen to test a vaccine or treatment, or better understand the disease they cause.
Dengue fever, while often asymptomatic, is also known as “break bone fever” for the severity of the joint pain and spasms that some patients experience.
In the trial done with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 10 volunteers were given a high dose of the J&J pill five days before being injected with a type of dengue.
The five people in a placebo group, who were also injected with dengue, all showed detectable virus when tested.
Persons:
Jennifer Rigby, Johnson, Van Loock, J’s Janssen, Jeremy Farrar, Johns, J, “, ”, Bill Berkrot
Organizations:
Reuters, Johnson, American Society of Tropical Medicine, Hygiene, J, Health Organization’s, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, WHO
Locations:
United States, Chicago, Asia, Latin America