Demonstrating vaccine effectiveness during a waning epidemic: A WHO/NIH meeting report on approaches to development and licensure of Zika vaccine candidates.

Since its peak in early 2016, the incidence of Zika virus (ZIKV) cases has declined to such low levels that Phase 3 field efficacy trials may be infeasible. While great progress was made to rapidly advance several vaccine candidates into Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, in the absence of sustained viral transmission it may be difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of ZIKV vaccine candidates by conducting traditional clinical disease endpoint efficacy studies. However, ZIKV is still circulating at low levels in some areas and is likely to re-emerge in naïve populations or in sites of prior epidemics once population immunity wanes.

What Recent History Has Taught Us About Responding to Emerging Infectious Disease Threats.

Presidential administrations face any number of unexpected crises during their tenure, and global pandemics are among the most challenging. As of January 2017, one of the authors had served under 5 presidents as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. During each administration, the government faced unexpected pandemics, ranging from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which began during the Reagan administration, to the recent Zika outbreak in the Americas, which started during the Obama administration.

The Pathway to a Universal Influenza Vaccine.

Development of a universal influenza vaccine is a research priority for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. To facilitate this goal, we convened a workshop in Rockville, Maryland to identify knowledge gaps in influenza research and develop strategies to fill them.

Antimicrobial Resistance.

Importance: The development of antibiotics is considered among the most important advances of modern science. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives. However, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens this progress and presents significant risks to human health.

Emerging viral diseases: confronting threats with new technologies.

Emerging viral diseases pose ongoing health threats, particularly in an era of globalization; however, new biomedical research technologies such as genome sequencing and structure-based vaccine and drug design have improved our ability to respond to viral threats.

Ending the global HIV/AIDS pandemic: the critical role of an HIV vaccine.

While the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS pandemic continues, the incidence of HIV infections has fallen because of the deployment of antiretroviral drugs and multiple prevention modalities. To achieve a durable end to the pandemic, a vaccine remains essential. Recent advances in vaccinology offer new promise for an effective HIV vaccine.