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

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 11:10:18 +1100, "neils" <oneliah@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>It is a mutated virus that is yet to mutate. We cant create a vaccine till
>it does mutate. From the point the virus is identified it could take 6-9
>weeks for a working vaccine to be created. In the tiny population of
>Australia (20 mill) they estimate it will take 6 months to produce enough
>vaccine for 20 million people (once again do the maths on America)

We can create vaccines for the current bird flu. We can analyze any
bird flu mutant that crosses over to humans and see if any existing
vaccines will work due the similarities between the two strains. More
importantly, it is easier to make a new vaccine that is a variant of
an old one than to start from scratch.

So work on existing viruses is worth while.

>Now the extra sticking point. Flu vaccines are grown in fertilised chicken
>eggs. If we mass slaughter the chickens how are we going to get the eggs we
>need for the vaccine to stop the flu.

Eliminating this sticking point is one of the initiatives in Bush's
plans. The vaccine makers all have research efforts to get better
faster methods that do not depend on chicken eggs. The problem is
money. The research are funded from profits and the profits from
vaccines is low. So the research progresses but slowly. Bush would
provide government funding to increase this research effort.

Danny
real e-mail address is dlow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Shrub quote without comment...
    ... > has yet to mutate to a form that easily jumps from human to human? ... partially inactivated H5N1 vaccine. ... then the H5N1 vaccine would be useless and you would be back to square one ... with having to make a vaccine from the mutated strain. ...
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  • 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)
  • Re: Shrub quote without comment...
    ... >>David wrote: ... >>Have they developed a vaccine for the H5n1 virus yet, ... >>has yet to mutate to a form that easily jumps from human to human? ... > We can't even make regular flu vaccine. ...
    (rec.radio.shortwave)
  • 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
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