The Potential Chlamydia Vaccine Has Encouraging Results Shop and Science

Women may soon be vaccinated against an infection, a common sexually transmitted disease that can lead to infertility, and the results of preliminary studies conducted to develop the vaccine are encouraging, according to a study published on Tuesday and cited by AFP.

Published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, the study shows that the developing vaccine is "safe and capable of eliciting an immune response".

But despite the "encouraging" results, scientists are still in the preliminary stages, and more research is needed "to determine if the triggered immune response effectively prevents chlamydial infection," according to the study.

This would be the first vaccine taken against this bacterial infection and will be tested in a clinical trial in the next phase of the study.

131 million people worldwide are infected with chlamydia annually, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

However, these estimates may be far from reality, as about 70% of infected women show no symptoms and are not aware that they have contracted the infection through sexual transmission.

Chlamydia is more common among women between the ages of 18 and 25 than men of the same age. In women, the disease can lead to serious complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and even infertility.

In addition, it increases the risk of contracting other sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea or HIV infection, the AIDS virus.

Chlamydia infection can be cured with antibiotic treatment.

But "given the impact of this epidemic on women, reproductive health and children in case of transmission (…), the need for a vaccine is real," said one of the study's authors, Professor Peter Andersen of the Danish Statens Research Institute, Serum Institute.

The researchers conducted a study on 35 women who had not been infected with chlamydia using two different vaccines. Fifteen of them received one of these dosage forms (given five times by injection into the hand, then by nasal spray), and another fifteen received the second form, five times, and the last five received placebo.

Both vaccine formulations elicit an immune response manifested by antibody production in all women tested.

However, the effectiveness of the first composition is better as it allows the production of several antibodies. Therefore, it was selected for further research.

"Although more years of research are needed, we intend to move to the next phase, the second phase clinical trial," said researcher Helen B. Jewell of the team of scientists who published the study, quoted by Agerpres.