Saturday, January 28, 2006

KILLER INFLUENZA VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH : HUMAN COLD VIRUS MAY HOLD KEY

Researchers in the US
have genetically engineered a human cold virus in their search for a vaccine to avian influenza, and they are claiming it is one hundred percent effective in mice and chickens.

So your chickens and mice will survive, even if you don't.
"While production of a conventional flu vaccine requires months of work and large numbers of fertilized chicken eggs, the researchers reported Thursday that they prepared their vaccine in only 36 days, growing it in a laboratory dish.

"The ability to produce a new vaccine so quickly could give public health officials a powerful new tool to combat the H5N1 bird flu virus if it should mutate and begin infecting humans widely.

"The team is working with the Food and Drug Administration to begin human tests of the vaccine, said Dr. Andrea Gambotto of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who led the team. He said those trials could begin within weeks."

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