Experimental Measles Pill Showing Promise

An experimental oral treatment for measles has just past a key stage in animal testing that has the drug on its way to becoming a potential way to thwart an infection that is particularly deadly to young children and pregnant women.

According to a study recently published in Science Translational Medicine, the official journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Research (AAAS),  a pill developed to fight off an infection of the measles virus has successfully managed to treat and cure lab ferrets infected with  canine distemper virus.

According to the study, the canine distemper virus used in a series of animal testing behaves in ferrets in a remarkably similar fashion to how the standard measles virus behaves in humans.

What makes the two viruses different is that while canine distemper virus is very deadly in ferrets, measles tends to prove deadly only to newborns, unborn children and individuals with massively compromised immune systems.

According to the study, when treated with an experimental oral drug, known as ERDRP-0519, all infected ferrets survived the viral infection which normally has a 100 percent fatality rate. Amazingly, not only did the animals survive the infection, but after no sign of the virus was left in their bodies, it appeared that the ferrets had developed an immunity to future infections.

"The emergence of strong antiviral immunity in treated animals is particularly encouraging, since it suggests that the drug may not only save an infected individual from disease but contribute to closing measles immunity gaps in a population," Dr. Richard Plemper of Georgia State University said in a statement following the study's publication.

Of course, it will still be a long time before this pill finds its way into human testing, but experts are still hopeful about its potential applications in the near future.

Measles most commonly causes watery eyes, a body-covering rash, a severe fever, and generally lasts up to a week, according to the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC). Still, in countries largely not immunized to the infections, the highly contagious virus can prove to be far more dangerous than just a week-long inconvenience. Even in the U.S., where childhood immunization programs have well over 90 percent of the country immune to the disease, unvaccinated young and unborn children are still at risk, as severe fever can influence early development.

The study was published in Science Translational Medicine on April 16.