Relative of West Nile Could Provide Vaccine

A vaccine using a harmless relative of the West Nile virus could offer a way to protect people against the disease, researchers in Australia said.

Mice vaccinated with the virus, known as Kunjin, were protected against the sometimes deadly West Nile, the scientists reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Roy Hall of the University of Queensland in Brisbane and colleagues later injected the mice with what should have been lethal doses of West Nile. The mice did not become ill, they reported.