Drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline says it may be able to produce massive quantities of a vaccine to fight the bird flu and that the vaccine could be available to the public as early as next year.
The pharmaceutical giant was pleased with tests that were recently completed on a prototype of the vaccine. Because the new vaccine uses small amounts of live virus, it would not be difficult to produce quickly in mass quantities. Past proposed vaccines have only used dead cells of the H5N1 virus.
The tests were conducted on 400 adults in Belgium. The prototype vaccine used adjuvant, an ingredient designed to help stimulate the body's immune system against the virus.
'It's a good and exciting piece of science,' Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations' coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza told the Associated Press. 'But as with all new discoveries, quite a lot of work has now got to be done to establish its place in public health and pandemic preparedness.'
The prototype proved effective in 80 percent of the volunteers. This is promising but the vaccine is not quite ready for public use. 'There is still a lot more work to be done with this program, but this validation of our approach provides us with the confidence to continue developing the vaccine,' explained J.P. Garnier, GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive officer.
The H5N1 strain of the bird flu has claimed more than 130 lives in Asia. The virus has spread to the Middle East and Europe by the migration of infected birds.
Thus far, all human cases of the H5N1 avian flu virus have been caught by close contact with infected birds. The World Health Organization fears that if the virus mutates so it can be transmitted through direct contact between humans, a worldwide pandemic may result that could kill tens of millions of people. That would make it the deadliest flu pandemic since the Spanish Flu breakout in 1918-1920 which killed at least 40 million people just after World War I.
