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.

Comments

Virus Fund, let's do it.

[Ckwop]

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

Re:Virus Fund, let's do it.

[exi1ed0ne]

Great. Another "fund" (a.k.a. more taxation/debt) to combat something that may never come to pass. We can't even pay for all the government we got now. Why go looking for more things to throw money at? Given China's population density, along with their poor living conditions in their farming communities, the infection rate would have to be higher and the percentage of death less. Shouting "PANDEMIC!!!" is way over reacting at this point.

Want to protect yourself from the bird flu? Wash your hands more often.

Re:Virus Fund, let's do it.

[XenoRyet]

Only 80 deaths. That is not statisticaly signifigant in any size population.

Not only do we not need an Avian Flu specific fund, the money already dedicated to the purpose was too much. There are litteraly thousands of more deadly illnesses out there, currently active, and currently transmitible between humans. Why should we spend billions on this one virus that has thus for only shown the potential for danger?

The first world nations don't need to pledge to do anything on this yet. There is nothing to do yet, Avian influenza is not a threat, it only has potential to become a threat. It would be almost criminal to spend so much on a thus-far fairly begnine virus. First world nations need to have a little perspective before dedicating billions to the media's current favorite "crisis".

No, I think the normal reaserch budgets will be more than sufficent to look into Avian Flu for the moment. Those extra billions would be much better spent in a miriad of other places.

Re:Virus Fund, let's do it.

[(negative video)]

Only 80 deaths. That is not statisticaly signifigant in any size population.

The significance is that the manner of death was wholly unexpected. Young, strong people virtually never die from sudden lung inflammation. Tuberculosis, yes. Bacterial pneumonia, yes. But their own immune system just suddenly deciding to burn their lungs to the ground? Never happens.

There are litteraly thousands of more deadly illnesses out there, currently active, and currently transmitible between humans.

True, but most of them are either difficult to transmit (HIV, hepatitis A, rabies), are virulent and have obvious symptoms so that quarantine can be effective (ebola), or produce lasting immunity (bacterial meningitis, cholera).

Influenza, however, combines most of the worst things into a single virus. It is an RNA virus, so it mutates rapidly. It has a tiny genome, providing a minimal target for the adaptive immune system. It spreads easily through the air, allowing less-ill carriers to spread it widely (the Tyhoid Mary effect). It starts out by pretending to be the common cold, so carriers ignore it and continue to expose the community. Very few disease organisms combine these factors, and most of those that do (measles, smallpox, diptheria) are mercifully vulnerable to vaccines.

Why should we spend billions on this one virus that has thus for only shown the potential for danger?

Because the potential is real and quantified, not blindy extrapolated from fears. Influenza does regularly sweep across the world, leaving death and destruction in its wake. It does regularly kill people even in wealthy countries. The 1918 pandemic did send millions of strong, healthy adults to their deaths.

Certain strains are right now killing strong, healthy adults. Certain other strains do right now have the molecular factors for extreme transmissibility. It is an absolute guarantee that those strains will fuse in a single infected person, producing a new strain that has both virulence and transmissibility. When that happens, we will have another 1918-style pandemic on our hands.

And unless we can rapidly turn-around production of a strong vaccine, that pandemic will strike down millions of us. On the basis of missed work days alone, it makes sense to pour billions of dollars into preventing a flu pandemic.

Re:Virus Fund, let's do it.

[(negative video)]

Biology is not my field, but the thing that bothers me is that the virus has to mutate before it will readily transfer between humans.

Not necessarily. What can happen is that avian and human flu can infect one host at the same time. Even by viral standards, influenza is sloppy, so new viruses would be made with genes from both types. If a combination virus includes an avian virulence factor and a human transmissibility factor, you get the Martian Death Flu.

Is a vaccine developed now going to be effective against a virus that doesn't exist yet?

The odds are decent it will. Most genes contain "conserved" regions, stretches of DNA that have to be just so for the gene to work. (Most mutations there break the chemistry.) Even over centuries of mutation, those regions change very little. If you have antibodies to those, your immune system will have a leg up when you get infected, which might mean the difference between misery and death.

For a combination virus, a vaccine ought to be quite effective. It's just a matter of administering avian flu proteins in a vaccine. Unfortunately, most current flu vaccines are made by an obsolete process where the virus is grown in chicken eggs, and avian flu kills the eggs right away. We desperately need turn-key industrial systems for making vaccines. Culturing viruses is too prone to failure.

Re:yet another drug that will be overused

[exi1ed0ne]

In the dusty recesses of my memory, I seem to recall some experimentation where they sprayed benign bacteria on chickens. The theory goes that the competition for resources and the ample supply of non-harmful bacteria would reduce the sustainable population of harmful bacteria.

I find it interesting that being too clean of all bacteria can actually have harmful effects. We're really colony organisms after all. I wondered whatever happened with it?

1918 Flu was Bird Flu

[DigitalRaptor]

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.

Re:1918 Flu was Bird Flu

[vertinox]

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.

It would also mean, computer technology, telecomutting, and communication via internet would be much more important than it is now. Possibly creating an internet only society to keep from getting each infected.

Although maybe not really desirable...

I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to go to people's houses in a clean suit to fix their connection.

Re:1918 Flu was Bird Flu

[DigitalRaptor]

The problem is, what happens when the power goes out because everyone who works at the powerplant is dead, infected, taking care of sick family, or unable / unwilling to come to work?

Same with the ISP, the hospital (which has no medicine anyway), the grocery store (which has no food anyway), the gas station (which has no gas or goodies to sell anyway).

People don't realize how much our society relies on JIT, Just In Time delivery. Most stores have less than a week of food on hand and it is constantly replenished. Most gas stations have less than a week of gas onhand. Most hospitals have less than a few weeks medicine on hand.

If the bird flu becomes human to human transmissible, it won't be pretty, and we won't be sitting at home surfing the `net with a Starbucks. Hopefully we'll have food, water, and electricity.

Okay, ignore the "bird flu" hype for a little bit.

[mmell]

The research described in TFA could have repercussions for immunization and vaccination programs worldwide. That the researchers are concentrating on the H5N1 avian flu virus is predictable given the recent concerns about the potential for a lethal pandemic, but the research is applicable to a broad variety of virii such as the multiple influenza strains, which annually result in literally thousands of deaths worldwide, in part due to the lengthy and complex process involved in isolating, identifying, characterizing and controlling the virus particles involved.

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).

Why are we talking about Avian Flu

[XenoRyet]

Seriously, why are we talking about this as if it's dangerous to humans? The blurb states that this virus has killed 80 people so far. Regular old influeza kills 250,000 to 500,000 per year. I know there is the risk of it spreading and mutating and causing a pandemic. But is that really so likely that all this attention is justified?

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.

Re:Why are we talking about Avian Flu

[MtlDty]

Avian flu is now endemic amongst birds in South Asia, and was reportedly suspected to be endemic amongst birds in Turkey (which I still find bitterly ironic)

It may have only killed 80 people so far, but thats over 50% of the 150 or so people that have been infected. If the mortality rate is as severe when the virus mutates into a form more transmitable between humans then we're in real trouble - estimates of 150,000,000 deaths worldwide would ensure that someone you know personally will die.

There arent many professionals in the field that believe we can escape an imminent birdflu pandemic. So, in short, yes - it is likely that this will turn into a pandemic and we should all be as prepared as possible for that.

Here's a dollar, buy a clue

[Engineer-Poet]

One wonders what you would have said about the Spanish flu which became pandemic and killed millions worldwide. Before it mutated to become highly transmissible and took off, it also only showed "the potential for danger". Afterward, of course, it moved far too fast for vaccination to stop it.

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).