A Bird Flu Vaccine
| A trial of an H5N1 bird flu vaccine has shown that this vaccine would probably be acceptable for licensure, if needed. However, the need for a vaccine with a total dose of 180 µg would pose a considerable barrier to rapid production of a supply that would be adequate to meet the world's requirements should a pandemic occur. Like earlier trials with a similar preparation, the vaccine elicited a significant immune response only when given as two doses of 90 micrograms each. This is twelve times the amount needed in standard flu vaccines. And even that worked only in about half the people tested. Because only limited amounts of vaccine virus can be grown in the short time available at the start of a pandemic, the smaller the dose needed to immunise someone, the more people can be vaccinated in time to benefit. Scientists are beginning to suspect that something about the chemical nature of the H5N1 surface proteins used in the vaccine, possibly the strategic placement of a sugar group, keeps the human immune system from responding as it usually does to flu proteins. Some teams are now investigating what might make the proteins more immunogenic. Read the original article here... This was seized 4 u at The New Engeand Journal Of Medicine & New Scientist |
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