A breakthrough vaccine for a common sexually transmitted disease has provided fresh hope for Australia's most beloved endangered animal - and maybe a blueprint for human use.
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Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast spent more than a decade developing a single-use vaccine for chlamydia in koalas.
After habitat loss and vehicle strikes, chlamydia is one of the main threats to koala populations, leading to blindness, pneumonia, urinary and reproductive tract infections, infertility and death.
"Chlamydial disease affects 50 per cent or more of all koala populations, so we need a new tool," said Professor Peter Timms, from the univer