AUSTRALIA READIES TO ROLL OUT BIRD FLU VACCINE FOR THE YOUNG AND THE ELDERLY

SIX MONTH OLD INFANTS ARE BEING "RECRUITED"

How exactly does a six month year infant "volunteer" to take part in a vaccine test trial?

The key fact of this story is near the bottom. There are no guarantees. This vaccine has only proved effective against the strain of H5N1 from which it was developed. Whether or not the vaccine would prove effective against a mutant, more infectious form of the virus, is completely unknown.

Expect to see this vaccine rolled out across Australia and, once the virus has infected and killed a few Australians, this vaccine (or another) may well become mandatory for all Australian children.


From smh.com. au :

Scores of children and seniors will be immunised against deadly bird flu after an Australian-made test vaccine proved safe on adults.

Perth researchers have begun trialling a vaccine manufactured by serum and vaccine maker CSL on the two groups most vulnerable to a pandemic.

Similar trials are expected to start soon in Adelaide and Melbourne - involving 800 people in total.

CSL has said initial trials on 18- to 45-year olds, which began in the three cities last year, found the vaccine to be effective with few side-effects.

Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth is recruiting 100 children aged six months to eight years and the same number of people over 65.

Study volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart, followed by blood tests over the following seven months to check their immunity levels.

The commonwealth-supported vaccine - the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere - was developed from a strain taken from a Vietnamese bird flu victim.

CSL said its product could be available in Australia within six weeks of a pandemic beginning.

However, it warned that because the vaccine was developed from one strain of the avian flu it may not provide immunity if the H5N1 virus mutated and became highly infectious between people.

CSL will present its research to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for approval as soon as trials are complete.

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