Avian flu vaccine

The UK branch of the Glaxo company announced that their AFV has done well in its first testing, more testing is needed and approval sought but it should be ready for the 07-08 season, not for the coming winter unfortunatly.

So still time for Roche to rake in some more Tamiflu dollars then...


On a more serious point, just how effective will this vaccine be? If the virus mutates into a form which permits easier human-to-human dispersal, will the Glaxo vaccine still work? Or will become like Tamiflu - better than nothing?

From what I understand it is specific for the virus category and the mutations inside that will not lower its effectiveness. Remember they are making a vaccine against a virus that does not exist at the presenht time, the Avian flu/Human flu mixture virus.

I hate to take such an outrageous bait, but - - - if smallpox is not contagious, the the earth is also not a round globe orbiting in space. What one believes as "truth" depends on what sources of information one chooses to rely upon as truth; yet there really is a truth and, in this case, the truth is really being distorted. One can legitimately argue the merits of vaccines based on whether it is healthy to allow one species (ours) to overrun the planet, one can point to cases where vaccines caused injury (sometimes severe) to individuals, one can point to the statistical failure rate of individual vaccines, and one can criticize up the wazoo all the monetary interests and ethical improprieties involved in production and marketing of vaccines. But it is simply not plausible to argue that vaccines have no effect on epidemiology or that illness is not contagious. Of course, there are also persons who believe that having sex with a virgin will cure one of AIDS, which is one reason there's such a trade in child sex slaves in some countries . . . so I guess there is no end to human foolishness. But . . . If H5N1 does become airborne and highly contagious in the human population, and if that modified strain retains the fatality rate that current avian flu has in the human population, it will make SARS look like a walk on the beach. Unless you would be glad to see a huge chunk of the human population disappear in a mass pandemic, with chaos and breakdown of basic infrastructure something like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or Acech after the Tsunami, then thank god there is research into a vaccine that may be efficacious against this pandemic threat. And thanks to people like Dr. Moreton who are keeping an eye on it with the hope of helping their patients. And while I would be the LAST to deny the health benefits of lifestyle, and I firmly believe in making good choices in diet, supplements, and exercise, I won't address in this post the big fat stretch of luck in genes, economics, and statistical risk that enables one person to stay healthy while another, even an identical twin, becomes ill even when they have the same diet and exercise etc. My own family has a habit of living into the 100's -- but that does not mean that I will live that long. One case with a riveting testimonial of good fortune does not prove cause and effect.