Bird flu Vaccine Showing Success

[Angel]

A study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, shows scientists may soon have a way to protect humans from the bird flu. The research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reveals a study vaccine is able to induce an immune response against the virus that causes the bird flu.

The study involved healthy adults between ages 18 and 64. The participants were given one of four different doses of the vaccine or a placebo. One month later they were given a booster shot. The participants were followed and their health was analyzed for 56 days. Blood samples were taken and tested for the presence of the antibody against the virus.

Researchers found the higher the dose, the greater the antibody response produced. Of those who received the highest dose, 54 percent achieved a response. Of those who received the second lowest dose of active vaccine, only 22 percent developed a similar response. All doses appeared to be well tolerated with only mild side effects.

The vaccine is made from an inactivated H5N1 virus that was isolated in Southeast Asia in 2004.

National Institutes of Health Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., says, "These findings represent an important step forward in the nation's effort to prepare for the possible emergence of a human pandemic of H5N1 avian influenza."

While flu viruses are generally easily transmitted from person to person, the virus that causes the bird flu does not seem to have this characteristic, say researchers. If this were to develop, researchers worry it could trigger a pandemic since humans have no pre-existing immunity to the virus.

magical discovery.....hope vaccination done prior ,so, herd immunity may be developed too.