Re: America -- Land of Opportunity -- for H5N1

On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:06:31 -0500, Jenn Ridley
<jridley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>There are so many different ways that the current bird flu could
>mutate for human/human transfer that it's impossible to figure out
>which one it my take -- or, in this case, which ones. It's entirely
>possible that there could be different strains coming out of East Asia
>and Central Europe, even though the basic bird flu is the same.

This is not true at all. Scientists can make flu vaccine today by
examining the mutations and adjusting the existing vaccines. They can
compare the DNA sequences of a new flu with existing strains and
quickly figure out what mutated, whether an existing vaccine might
work due the similarities and what changes can be made to an existing
vaccine to handle the new strain.

That is why scientists spent so much effort to decipher the bird flu
DNA sequence. They are now testing a vaccine for it on mice. If it
works, they have something to modify for when the virus jump to humans
instead of starting from scratch. All that work in deciphering the
human DNA sequence have given scientists new tools to analyze viral
DNA for fighting new strains.

Danny
real e-mail address is dlow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Australian firm to start trials of bird flu vaccine
    ... Rachel David said the vaccine against the H5N1 strain of avian flu ... Bird flu has killed a confirmed 64 people in Asia since late 2003. ... The Australian government gave CSL A$5 million in July ... Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. ...
    (soc.culture.cambodia)
  • Re: avian flu spreading fast, was changes in food
    ... >> Turkey (the country at the far end of Europe from mine, ... >> mass long-range bird migrations. ... Our govt has stockpiled a grossly inadequate number of vaccine shots ... so much worried about catching bird flu, ...
    (misc.rural)
  • Re: America -- Land of Opportunity -- for H5N1
    ... >"bird flu" until we actually have examples to work on... ... made a vaccine for it that works on mice. ... manufacturing techniques to cut the lead time. ... Last year's flu vaccine problem was due to the fact that the USA is ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: America -- Land of Opportunity -- for H5N1
    ... >It is a mutated virus that is yet to mutate. ... >weeks for a working vaccine to be created. ... We can create vaccines for the current bird flu. ... The vaccine makers all have research efforts to get better ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)