Washington, May 3 (EFE).– The first human trials with a vaccine against the Zika virus will begin this autumn, but it will be two or three years before researchers will know if it is successful against the disease, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at a press conference at the Washington office of the Pan-American Health Organization.

“The reality of the situation is that it is very difficult to rush the development of a vaccine, particularly in a situation where you want to make sure that you embark and put upon the population a safe vaccine,” he said.

While the scientific community will know by the start of 2017 if the vaccine is safe for humans, between two and three years will be needed to perform studies on its efficacy in Latin America, Fauci explained.

For the time being, he said that institute has allocated funds initially designated for the study of other viruses transmitted by mosquitoes while it waits for Congress to approve President Barack Obama’s request for $1.9 billion to battle Zika.

Sylvain Aldighieri, who is heading the Pan-American Health Organization’s Zika response, said that based on the spread of dengue and Chikungunya, Zika will infect millions of people in the Americas.

Fauci also noted that, despite the fact that at present all the cases in the continental United States have been people who had traveled, it is very likely that local cases will appear.

Puerto Rico has registered hundreds of cases of the local transmission of the virus.

Zika does not usually cause serious illness, but it has been linked to birth defects. EFE