Infectious disease. West Nile drugs, vaccine still years away.

With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), several research groups are taking the first steps toward developing drugs to fight the acute phase of West Nile virus infection. NIH is also supporting the fast-track development of a vaccine. But because it doesn't make sense to vaccinate the entire population for such a rare disease, it is unclear how large the market for a vaccine will be.