Bird flu vaccines

What is bird flu and available vaccines?

The main cause of the bird flu is the avian influenza virus. This virus does not naturally occur in humans but it is seen in the wild birds. Domesticated birds and humans are also at a risk to be infected from this virus. In the recent past a lot of humans got infected and also died because of this virus. The symptoms of bird flu are very similar to that of the normal influenza symptoms. Normal symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches. There is a large variety of subtypes of the bird flu virus. The symptoms of avian influenza normally depend upon the type of avian virus that caused the infection. Unfortunately currently no vaccine is available to protect humans against the avian flu virus that is being seen in Asia. In Asia normally H5N1 virus is seen. There is a lot of research work is going on to make a vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu virus to protect the humans. Governments in Asia should also consider stockpiling vaccines against this virus before an epidemic starts.

Problems in production of vaccines

There are a lot of problems in developing a vaccine against H5 virus. Although it is possible to do safety tests and work out the dose required to produce an immune response. But it is obviously not possible to find out in advance whether a vaccine will provide any protection against a pandemic. The capacity to manufacture antiviral is also limited. Everybody is also not convinced in Europe and America in spending money on testing and stockpiling an H5 vaccine is worthwhile. Because of all these hurdles it is difficult to develop and stockpiling such vaccine.

Recent research studies
According to University of Pittsburgh scientists they have genetically engineered a bird flu vaccine. This vaccine has proven 100 percent effective in mice and chickens. This new vaccine is genetically engineered so it may be more immune-activating than any other avian flu medications. It can also be produced much more rapidly than traditional vaccines. The results of animal trial of this vaccine are also very promising. This vaccine can be used for the effective prevention of the bird flu virus.