"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," Plemper said.

The researchers emphasized the drug is not intended as a substitute for vaccination, but as an additional weapon in a concerted effort to eliminate the measles. They planned to test the drug's safety and efficacy in larger animals, before moving into clinical trials in humans.

"If our next series of studies confirms that the human situation mirrors what we have seen in ferrets, then this drug may make a major contribution to measles eradication by suppressing local outbreaks, and helping to close the existing gaps in population immunity," Plemper said.

Despite the existence of an effective vaccine, annual measles deaths worldwide have remained constant at around 150,000 since 2007, without further progress toward the eradication goal.

The reasons for this are the highly infectious nature of the virus and insufficient vaccine coverage, in the developing world largely due to issues of access and resources, and in many developed countries in particular in the European region due to parental concerns regarding vaccination safety.

The study, which also involved researchers from the Emory Institute for Drug Development and the Paul-Ehrlich Institute in Germany, was published in the U.S. journal Science Translational Medicine.