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Vaccine Effective Against Avian Flu
FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers announced they have genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine from the critical components of the deadly H5N1 virus that completely protected mice and chickens from infection. This virus has thus far killed 80 people, devastated bird populations in Southeast Asia and Europe and caused for billions in damage through the world." Here's hoping it works on us, too.
Why vacinate just the chickens? While it would have to mutate in order to pass between humans it seems plausible (to a laymen in this field) that a vacine that protects against bird-flu might also offer some protection against the mutent.
This break-through is just what we've needed: A fast way to make a lot of flu vaccines. The question now is, do we now have enough time to take a side swipe at bird-flu before it makes the transition to a human form? At any rate, even if it does make the transition, I do believe this would be the last major flu pandemic.
The next time people will not be so complacent. The billions the first-world nations have just pledged to fight Avian Flu will be pledged much more quickly. In fact, I think the UN will have a fund to tackle these kinds of nightmares and the money will be released immediately on discovery of a virus that is deadly to humans. Couple this with the fact we'll have better ways to sythentise vaccines. These new methods will hopefully deliver a suitable product on the order of days rather than months.
It makes sense for us to set-up such a fund. For a start, the economic loss caused by bird flu will run in to trillions. So let's do it! Whether you're black or white, Palestinian or Israeli, Christian or Muslim this virus effects us all equally. Surely, even the most hardened tax-cutting Republican in the universe will agree that it's sensible to stump up money for this fund.
Simon
Factory farmed chickens are already pumped full of antibiotics... does this mean that they will now be pumped full of HSN1 vaccine in the future? Both are theorecically used for the purpose of keeping them healthy, but the long term negative effects of eating antibiotic-riddled chicken is still not known. HSN1 vaccine passed from chicken to human might not have the happiest effects.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
36,000 people die from the common flu every year. Ya, this "bird" flu is really scary. At least it gives the news outlets something to pedel until something new comes along. Oh ya, 1000's of people die each month in iraq. Maybe we should find a "cure" for that too.
...a few months ago and here it is why it's stupid.
This is the animal-vaccine they are talking about. It offers next to nothing protection from a yet non-existant human to human spreading version of avian flu.
Btw, Hungary's one of the leading vaccine developing countries in avian flu research.
There are already a huge demand for the animal-to-human spreading vaccination worldwide because of the huge media hype. This version of the disease only kills people with frequent contact with animals, still people are led to believe that they need protection.
Btw, as researchers said here in Hungary, it would take around two weeks to create a working vaccine for a human/human version of avian flu and to start mass producing it, so I'd wish people would just stop believing the "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING WE'LL GONNA DIE!!!1111" propaganda flowing from the media.
Just my take on the issue.
Although if people want to believe go do them: Hungary's govt. is expecting $10+ billion dollars of income from the vaccine and related research.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Avian flu is a virus. A vaccine does not work the same way as an antibiotic. The birds get dosed once or twice and then their bodies learn to fight of Avian Flu. The vaccine does not stick around in their systems for a long time.
Speling Troll
Recently researchers were able to recreate the 1918 flu that killed 100 million around the world, and what they found was a little alarming. The 1918 flu jumped directly from birds to humans and became transmissable between humans.
If the current bird flu manages that, there will be an 18 month siege on the economy the likes of which our generations have never seen as borders are shut down and vital supply chains are broken.
Hopefully this new advance offers some hope. Who knows if a pandemic will happen (well, one will happen without a doubt because they have on average every 30 years for the last 300, but we just don't know if this bird flu is the next one), it's just a roll of the dice everytime a human gets infected whether it will mutate.
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"This virus has thus far killed 80 people"
RTF whatever. It's unfortunate that you were modded interesting, when your comment is so violently misinformed.
Fowl-er play. Maybe he's just too chicken to try it. If anything his argument is poultry.
University of Pittsburgh researchers announced they have genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine from the critical components of the deadly H5N1 virus that completely protected mice and chickens from infection. Avian flu has devastated bird populations in Southeast Asia and Europe and so far has killed more than 80 people.
Because this vaccine contains a live virus, it may be more immune-activating than avian flu vaccines prepared by traditional methods, say the researchers. Furthermore, because it is grown in cells, it can be produced much more quickly than traditional vaccines, making it an extremely attractive candidate for preventing the spread of the virus in domestic livestock populations and, potentially, in humans, according to the study, published in the Feb 15 issue of the Journal of Virology and made available early online.
"The results of this animal trial are very promising, not only because our vaccine completely protected animals that otherwise would have died, but also because we found that one form of the vaccine stimulates several lines of immunity against H5N1," said Andrea Gambotto, M.D., assistant professor in the departments of surgery and molecular genetics and biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and lead author of the study.
Dr. Gambotto and his colleagues constructed the vaccine by genetically engineering a common cold virus, called adenovirus, to express either all or parts of an avian influenza protein called hemagglutinin (HA) on its surface. Found on the surface of all influenza viruses, HA allows the virus to attach to the cell that is being infected and is, therefore, critical to the influenza virus' ability to cause illness and death.
Since the late 1990s, a number of outbreaks of the avian influenza H5N1 in poultry have occurred in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Outbreaks recently have been reported in Turkey and Romania. To date, H5N1 has caused the most large-scale and widespread bird deaths in known history--an estimated 150 to 200 million birds have either died in the outbreaks or been killed as part of infection control actions in the last eight years.
The H5N1 virus does not usually infect humans. However, in 1997, the first case of spread from a bird to a human occurred in Hong Kong during an outbreak of bird flu in poultry. The virus caused severe respiratory illness in 18 people, six of whom died. Since that time, more than 170 cases of known H5N1 infection have occurred among humans worldwide, approximately half of whom died.
Based on the published sequence of the Vietnam strain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, members of the University of Pittsburgh Vector Core Facility, led by Wentao Gao, Ph.D., research instructor in the School of Medicine's department of surgery, constructed several adenovirus "vectors"--viruses that have been modified to serve as a vector, or delivery vehicle, for foreign genes or DNA--containing either the full genetic sequence of the HA protein or sequences for only parts, or subunits, of HA. They also constructed a vector containing sequences for a portion of the HA protein from the H5N1 Hong Kong strain.
Collaborating with investigators Xiuhua Lu, Ph.D., Doan C. Nguyen, M.D., Yumi Matsuoka, Ph.D., Ruben O. Donis, Ph.D., and Jaquelin M. Katz, Ph.D., of the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Gambotto's team tested the ability of their slightly different vaccines to protect mice from infection by wild-type H5N1 by comparing its performance to an adenovirus vector containing no H5N1 genes, or an "empty vector." The investigators then observed the H5NI-exposed mice for any signs of illness, including weight loss and death, and also checked their blood for anti-viral antibodies and other markers of H5N1-specific immunity.
All of the mice immunized with the empty vector vaccine experienced substantial weight loss beginning about three days after exposure to wild-type H5N1, and all were dead withi
We're dealing with a family of virii which mutates with frightening rapidity; speeding up the ability to respond to these mutations strikes me as an incredible advance which will ultimately save thousands of lives per year (assuming, of course, that this research is verifiable).
...than yet another Google/Apple/MS press release? Perhaps this is off topic, but I'm glad /. now lists the "small" topics because the "big" ones aren't worth their hype lately.
Let's see... saving lives or advancing the cause of celebrity? Which is more important in a Slashdot world?
Nice guys don't finish last. In reality, they're abducted halfway through the race.
It reminds me of the West Nile Virus hype. We heard about West Nile for months and months as if it was the black death or some such thing. For the record West Nile produces mild flu-like symptoms. You might catch it, have it run it's cycle, and be healthy again and just think you had a bad day. It only ever killed people who probably would have been done in by a stiff breeze. Yet this was newsworthy material.
I don't understand this facination in the media with obscure exotic desises that don't have any real impact on world heath. Lets get some perspective before we claim the sky is falling.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
Making the vaccine is just the first step. Manufacturing ramp-ups and other time delays mean that it will still probably be at least two or three years before this vaccine is actually in use.
Of course, it will likely be in use where it's needed most - in Asia - sooner than it is here. That's not because of any altruistic motives on the part of the drug manufacturers (although they often claim that it is), it's because those countries have far fewer regulations, safeguards, and old-fashioned red-tape in place.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I'm almost afraid to ask what you think of the successful eradication of smallpox, or the efforts to finally get rid of polio (also a mere handful of deaths each year... due completely to our efforts to do the same to it as we did with smallpox).
Sustainability and energy independence essay
It is my understanding that vaccines are generally strain-specific to the virus they target (hence the new Flu shot every year). Since this vaccine is for the current H5N1 Strain, which does not seem to transmit human-to-human effectively enough to really pose much of a pandemic risk, what good is it going to be against a mutated strain that actually poses a risk? Would it be effective as a starting point for a vaccine against a future strain? Or is this just something that will save the animals but have minimal if any human application?
Fight psychopharmacological mccarthyism. http://www.norml.org/
A lot of folks out there, particularly in the United States, believe that:
So, I can't help but wonder what these folks will do when the fecal material hits the air circulating device. Will they stand by their principles, or will they rationalize their way into the vaccination line?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Wasn't there an expected pandemic many years ago where a vaccine was quickly developed and proceeded to be deliverered to all Americans, but in the aftermath it was determined that the actual virus only killed one person and the vaccine killed hundreds?
I recall reading about it, but don't remember any other details other than the person killed as a result of the virus may have been a navy guy.