Plant vaccine for cruise bug

Scientists at the University of Arizona are ready to begin human testing of a plant-based vaccine for the vomiting virus that is the bane of cruise ships. Norovirus is a stomach bug which is highly contagious: it travels rapidly through ‘closed environments’ such as schools, hospitals and – of course – cruise ships.

Norovirus has a million cases annually in the UK alone, and because it’s one of a group of viruses that mutate rapidly and often, it’s hard to create a vaccine that can deal with it. Now the Arizona team, claims that using plants to make and grow the vaccines could be the answer - because the manufacturing process is swift enough to keep up with the rapidly changing virus. Their norovirus vaccine is created in a tobacco plant, using an engineered plant virus and has no infectious material from the original virus but instead triggers the body's immune response to ward off an actual norovirus infection.