Universal flu jab works in people

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation

A single jab that could give lifelong protection against all types of flu has produced promising results in human trials.

The vaccine, made by Acambis, should protect against all strains of influenza A - the cause of pandemics.

Currently, winter flu jabs have to be regularly redesigned because the flu virus keeps changing.

The new vaccine would overcome this and could be stockpiled in advance of a bird flu outbreak, say experts.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7171118.stm

Evolution has a few billion years of experience to out-wit us with. "All" types of flu? All currently-known types of flu, I'd accept.

vaccine would protect against all known "A" types of flue. There's also type B and type C. The article correctly notes that it is type A that seems to cause most (perhaps all) of the pandemics, and is usually the deadliest version of the flu. Even if it works exactly as advertised, it wouldn't eliminate flu altogether (even if every person in the world were to be vaccinated) because the other two types would still be around.

From what I understand of the flu virus and how vaccines work, this does sound promising, but it is certainly a very early report and a lot of work and testing still needs to be done.

The real problem with recurring flu is that the Chinese continue to farm ducks and pigs together. The two species keep on passing the flu virus back and forth between each other, allowing for constant mutation of the virus, and therefore continuing flu epidemics. Neither species is itself made sick by the virus. If we could persuade Chinese farmers to change their farming habits, it would greatly reduce flu occurrence. But it's efficient and effective for them to farm the way they do.

Here's a vaccination question: I know that some workplaces (notable federal and state government ones) tend to require the flu vaccine of their employees. Is the incidence of flu in those workplaces notably lower than in other, less well vaccinated workplaces?

And don't fully understand the science they are reporting? NO WAY! ;-)

As to your vaccination question, aren't you just asking whether the flu vaccine prevents the flu? Because it does, when the correct strain is predicted.

are done about the effectiveness of flue vaccines, they don't seem to be all that incredibly effective. Even when they've correctly guessed which strain they need to develop the vaccine for. What is also overlooked is that the immunity you get from actually getting the flu is far better than the immunity from the vaccine. During the 1918 flue epidemic, people over the age of fifty were far less likely to get that flu than were younger people, because the older ones had lived through a similar flu epidemic about fifty years earlier, and so were quite likely to be already immune. Yes, there is the very real point that flu can be a quite serious disease, and people really do die from it. But vaccines are not perfect, and they may perhaps be fostering a certain illusion of safety.

I also have become convinced that the rise in auto-immune diseases may well be connected to the rise in immunizations. But that's just me.

Sorry...but de-population is the WORD. Unless, and until, we have a Govt we can trust to protect its citizens...you can just forget THAT.

VIVA LA NWO RESISTANCE!

and the number of people who never recovered from the vaccine? I think I'll take my chances with the annual flu vaccine for a few more years.

$863,562 you too can buy one in the U.S. :sarcasm:

I hope they start trials and production soon. I follow emerging infectious disease outbreaks and I am concerned re H5N1's progress around the world.

Let others serve as the guinea pigs.

Current flu vaccines work by giving immunity to two proteins called haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which are found on the surface of flu viruses.

However, these proteins keep mutating which means doctors have to keep making new vaccines to keep up.

The Acambis vaccine homes in on a different protein, called M2, which is found on the surface of all A-strains of flu and does not appear to mutate so readily.

Glad that scientists are working on vaccines, hope that they find ways to make them for all sorts of diseases.

She can't talk about her work except for the fact that she is part of the team working on it. She is one smart cookie. We are very proud of the work she does. I feel safe getting a flu shot knowing she is one of the people developing it.

I started taking Allegra for allergies, and since that first pill, I've had neither cold nor flu... ever. Before that time, with three kids in three different schools, we had everything that came down the pike. I have no clue why it is I am seemingly now immune to the common cold, but I have witnesses! My boyfriend, for instance, gets a cold at least once a year. As do the kids... not me... not when they are sick, not when the boss or coworkers are sick, not when I stand behind extremely sick people in check-out lines at stores... never.

The one time I had a flu shot, about seven years ago, I got so incredibly ill and wound up with pneumonia! I'll never, ever take a flu shot again. For this reason, and just because I'm too damn suspicious of mass inoculations of any kind.

why not just sell it in mass..