For years, mosquito-borne virus chikungunya has been hopscotching around the globe, infecting one virgin population after another, inflicting the infected with fever and debilitating pain that can last for months. Now, after sweeping the Caribbean, the disease is settling into the U.S.’s Gulf Coast region, raising concerns that it’s one mutation away from a push farther north.

But there’s some good news on the horizon. For years, NIH scientists have been working on a vaccine for chikungunya, and a study published last week in the journal Lancet reports that the shot has passed a critical phase 1 clinical trial. Twenty-five adult volunteers participated, and none were adversely affected by the vaccine.

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Will Dunham, reporting for Reuters: