India Developing Vaccine for Kyasanur Forest Disease

This will be the first indigenous vaccine for the disease commonly known as monkey fever

- Priyanka Sharma

The country's top medical research body—the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)—has partnered with Hyderabad-headquartered Indian Immunological Ltd to develop the country's first monkey fever vaccine.

Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), commonly known as monkey fever, is a vector-borne hemorrhagic fever transmitted by ticks from infected monkeys to people. It has no cure.

Work on the country's first indigenously developed monkey fever vaccine follows the disease's spread from Karnataka's Kyasanur forest to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Maharashtra.

ICMR initiated the work after a request from the Karnataka government.