Flu breakthrough promises a vaccine to kill all strains
British team’s success with jab that targets proteins common to every type of flu virus
by Alok Jha, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 February 2011 21.50 GMT
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.
The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world.
Developed by a team led by Dr Sarah Gilbert at Oxford’s Jenner Institute, the vaccine targets proteins inside the flu virus that are common across all strains, instead of those that sit on the virus’s external coat, which are liable to mutate.
If used widely a universal flu vaccine could prevent pandemics, such as the swine flu outbreaks of recent years, and end the need for a seasonal flu jab.
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One thought on “Flu breakthrough promises a vaccine to kill all strains”
That sure would be handy. Especially if it works on flu-evildisease hybrids, like the one they made that killed almost all the mice exposed to it, in Australia – that would remove (or at least help to counter) a pretty horrifying terrorism threat.