Bird Flu Vaccine Update
Bird Flu Vaccine Update
A vaccine designed to protect against the avian (bird) flu is back in
the news. The latest is a report in a recent issue of the medical journal
Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Researchers in Hungary at the
National Center for Immunology and Allergy in Budapest report the safe
and effective use of a H5N1 strain (so called Avian strain) in a small group
of children 9 to 17 years of age. Following a single intramuscular dose of
this trial vaccine, the rate of protection against this bird flu strain afforded
children was 75% several weeks following vaccination.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the H5N1 strain is
one version of influenza virus found in birds. Unlike influenza normally
encountered by humans where the level of infection ranges from mild to
serious in most people, infection caused by H5N1 is far more serious and
tends to happen very quickly. Pneumonia and a failure of organs other
than the lungs is common. While H5N1 occurs mostly among birds, if at
any point it begins to transmit from human to human, a feared pandemic
could occur that could affect millions of people.