NIH Uses Live Viruses for Bird Flu Vaccine

[Ian David]

NIH Uses Live Viruses for Bird Flu Vaccine

By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 17, 2005; 11:37 PM

WASHINGTON -- In an isolation ward of a Baltimore hospital, up to 30 volunteers will participate in a bold experiment: A vaccine made with a live version of the most notorious bird flu will be sprayed into their noses.

First, scientists are dripping that vaccine into the tiny nostrils of mice. It doesn't appear harmful _ researchers have weakened and genetically altered the virus so that no one should get sick or spread germs _ and it protects the animals enough to try in people.

<snip>

And if it works, this new vaccine frontier may not just protect against the bird flu strain, called H5N1, considered today's top health threat. It offers the potential for rapid, off-the-shelf protection against whatever novel variation of the constantly evolving influenza virus shows up next _ through a library of live-virus nasal sprays that the National Institutes of Health plans to freeze.

"It's high-risk, high-reward" research, said Dr. Brian Murphy, who heads the NIH laboratory where Dr. Kanta Subbarao is brewing the nasal sprays _ including one for a different bird-flu strain that appeared safe during the first crucial human testing last summer.

<snip>

The new project, a collaboration with FluMist manufacturer MedImmune Inc., piggybacks cutting-edge genetics technology onto that vaccine to create a line of FluMist-like sprays against different bird flus.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121700484.html

[soothsayer]

1. Man, they REALLY want this epidemic to start, even if they have

to start it themselves!