Could vaccines end the winter vomiting bug?

A vaccine is to be tested on thousands of people in a bid to establish whether the vaccine has potential in preventing norovirus which causes vomiting and diarrhoea.

The type of winter virus that could be spread very easily could therefore inflict its misery on anyone and is terrifyingly significant as it can close hospital wards, exclude children from school and parents from work.

The vaccine will be trialled on about 25,000 people, mostly over 60 years old in over six countries in the next two years.

If successful, the researchers claim it minimises vulnerable adults being in hospital during winter and the strain on health systems including the NHS.

Other viruses include flu, Covid and RSV are vaccinated and save the lives of millions of persons each year, but currently there is no licensed vaccine against norovirus.

This vaccine currently in clinical trials is developed by Moderna and is an mRNA vaccine. Like the company’s Covid jab, it provides our immune system with directions on identifying an invasive virus and how to produce antibodies against it.

You always have to wonder when and where you got it, as norovirus is not easy to identify.

‘[Some species] show a large and changing population of genotypes at a very large time scale,’ concluded Dr Patrick Moore, a GP at Dorset and the chief investigator of the study.

And so this vaccine contains three of the most frequently reported strains of the virus as a way to gain the maximum outcome.

There are still many questions that remain unanswered – for instance, how long does immunity from it last, how effective the vaccine will be and how often will the vaccine be altered?

It is a trial funded by UK Government through NIHR and undertaken in collaboration with Moderna and answers to those questions are expected to be provided during the trial.

 Twenty-seven NHS hospitals and centres across England, Scotland and Wales will participate in the trial with half of the recruited patients receiving the vaccine and comparison will be made to other participants.

Scientists studying this vaccine will also be on the lookout for adverse reactions to the vaccine.

A number of other drug makers are also working and testing Norovirus vaccines such as HilleVax and Vaxart.

In particular, norovirus has made a significant contribution to the overall picture of infections in the UK.

Then there is the social cost – each year around 3.7 million people catch the sickness bug, 12,000 are hospitalized and 80 die from it.

With the annual financial loss to the NHS estimating around £100 million.

The highest risk is recorded among the elderly and the most compromised such as those in old age homes and care home residents. But healthcare workers, childcare providers, flight attendants and cruise ship travelers and employees are not spared either.

Drinking a lot of fluids is the only cure for the norovirus in order to avoid getting dehydrated.

Speaking to the newspaper, Saul Faust, a professor of paediatric immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Southampton, described norovirus as placing ‘a huge burden on healthcare systems’.

Cure for any illness weakens one and in the elderly it is hard to down this mal effect, he said.

Trial will be conducted through mobile facilities so that researchers could come to the care homes and vaccinate more people.

Finally if the vaccine is at least 65% effective and the trials are followed by more trials then Prof Faust explained it could be used to protect children as well.

But that is still several years down the road most probably. Meanwhile, research is underway to gather evidence that the vaccine decreases the possibility of persons getting sick with norovirus. They will then forward this information to the UK regulator in order to be cleared for the jab.

Speaking at the NHS Providers ‘Winter Evening’ on 6 December, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting highlighted norovirus for exacerbating pressure on the NHS every winter.

As a result, said he, the UK is pioneering the path to create a vaccine against this vomiting disease.

Dr Lucy Chappell, the current Chief Executive of the NIHR said that the vaccine can indeed have implication­s on many citizens including “our most vulnerable.”