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Biotech Science

Vaccine Effective Against Avian Flu 44

Posted by Zonk from the ahh-science-is-there-anything-you-can't-do? dept.
FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers announced they have genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine from the critical components of the deadly H5N1 virus that completely protected mice and chickens from infection. This virus has thus far killed 80 people, devastated bird populations in Southeast Asia and Europe and caused for billions in damage through the world." Here's hoping it works on us, too.
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Vaccine Effective Against Avian Flu More

Vaccine Effective Against Avian Flu

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  • Virus Fund, let's do it. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ckwop ( 707653 ) * on Friday January 27, 2006 @12:54PM (#14580481) Homepage

    Why vacinate just the chickens? While it would have to mutate in order to pass between humans it seems plausible (to a laymen in this field) that a vacine that protects against bird-flu might also offer some protection against the mutent.

    This break-through is just what we've needed: A fast way to make a lot of flu vaccines. The question now is, do we now have enough time to take a side swipe at bird-flu before it makes the transition to a human form? At any rate, even if it does make the transition, I do believe this would be the last major flu pandemic.

    The next time people will not be so complacent. The billions the first-world nations have just pledged to fight Avian Flu will be pledged much more quickly. In fact, I think the UN will have a fund to tackle these kinds of nightmares and the money will be released immediately on discovery of a virus that is deadly to humans. Couple this with the fact we'll have better ways to sythentise vaccines. These new methods will hopefully deliver a suitable product on the order of days rather than months.

    It makes sense for us to set-up such a fund. For a start, the economic loss caused by bird flu will run in to trillions. So let's do it! Whether you're black or white, Palestinian or Israeli, Christian or Muslim this virus effects us all equally. Surely, even the most hardened tax-cutting Republican in the universe will agree that it's sensible to stump up money for this fund.

    Simon

    • For a start, the economic loss caused by bird flu will run in to trillions.

      Really? Where'd you get that information? Anyways, for the rest of your post I agree with you completely.

    • Great. Another "fund" (a.k.a. more taxation/debt) to combat something that may never come to pass. We can't even pay for all the government we got now. Why go looking for more things to throw money at? Given China's population density, along with their poor living conditions in their farming communities, the infection rate would have to be higher and the percentage of death less. Shouting "PANDEMIC!!!" is way over reacting at this point.

      Want to protect yourself from the bird flu? Wash your hands mo

    • "This virus has thus far killed 80 people"

      RTF whatever. It's unfortunate that you were modded interesting, when your comment is so violently misinformed.
    • Only 80 deaths. That is not statisticaly signifigant in any size population.

      Not only do we not need an Avian Flu specific fund, the money already dedicated to the purpose was too much. There are litteraly thousands of more deadly illnesses out there, currently active, and currently transmitible between humans. Why should we spend billions on this one virus that has thus for only shown the potential for danger?

      The first world nations don't need to pledge to do anything on this yet. There is nothing to

      • Re:Virus Fund, let's do it. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by (negative video) ( 792072 ) <me AT teco-xaco DOT com> on Friday January 27, 2006 @03:18PM (#14582426)
        Only 80 deaths. That is not statisticaly signifigant in any size population.
        The significance is that the manner of death was wholly unexpected. Young, strong people virtually never die from sudden lung inflammation. Tuberculosis, yes. Bacterial pneumonia, yes. But their own immune system just suddenly deciding to burn their lungs to the ground? Never happens.
        There are litteraly thousands of more deadly illnesses out there, currently active, and currently transmitible between humans.
        True, but most of them are either difficult to transmit (HIV, hepatitis A, rabies), are virulent and have obvious symptoms so that quarantine can be effective (ebola), or produce lasting immunity (bacterial meningitis, cholera).

        Influenza, however, combines most of the worst things into a single virus. It is an RNA virus, so it mutates rapidly. It has a tiny genome, providing a minimal target for the adaptive immune system. It spreads easily through the air, allowing less-ill carriers to spread it widely (the Tyhoid Mary effect). It starts out by pretending to be the common cold, so carriers ignore it and continue to expose the community. Very few disease organisms combine these factors, and most of those that do (measles, smallpox, diptheria) are mercifully vulnerable to vaccines.

        Why should we spend billions on this one virus that has thus for only shown the potential for danger?
        Because the potential is real and quantified, not blindy extrapolated from fears. Influenza does regularly sweep across the world, leaving death and destruction in its wake. It does regularly kill people even in wealthy countries. The 1918 pandemic did send millions of strong, healthy adults to their deaths.

        Certain strains are right now killing strong, healthy adults. Certain other strains do right now have the molecular factors for extreme transmissibility. It is an absolute guarantee that those strains will fuse in a single infected person, producing a new strain that has both virulence and transmissibility. When that happens, we will have another 1918-style pandemic on our hands.

        And unless we can rapidly turn-around production of a strong vaccine, that pandemic will strike down millions of us. On the basis of missed work days alone, it makes sense to pour billions of dollars into preventing a flu pandemic.

        • We'll never know the total death toll from the 1918 flu but estimates range from 20 million at the low end to as many as 100 million. That's a massive range, yes -- records of that time are hard to come by and the world was, of course, at war -- but accepting even only the 20 million figure, it's difficult to find any other event in world history that has caused so many deaths is such a short period of time. According to a book I read a couple of years back (Flu, the author of which escapes me at the mome
        • Isn't there a so-called chicken cancer virus that is also RNA-based and has been known about for over a century without spreading to humans?

          Biology is not my field, but the thing that bothers me is that the virus has to mutate before it will readily transfer between humans. Is a vaccine developed now going to be effective against a virus that doesn't exist yet? The article skirted that question at the end and didn't sound all that positive.

          • Biology is not my field, but the thing that bothers me is that the virus has to mutate before it will readily transfer between humans.

            Not necessarily. What can happen is that avian and human flu can infect one host at the same time. Even by viral standards, influenza is sloppy, so new viruses would be made with genes from both types. If a combination virus includes an avian virulence factor and a human transmissibility factor, you get the Martian Death Flu.

            Is a vaccine developed now going to be effec

            • Biology is not my field, but the thing that bothers me is that the virus has to mutate before it will readily transfer between humans.

              Not necessarily. What can happen is that avian and human flu can infect one host at the same time. Even by viral standards, influenza is sloppy, so new viruses would be made with genes from both types. If a combination virus includes an avian virulence factor and a human transmissibility factor, you get the Martian Death Flu.

              Okay. That still sounds like a mutation

              • If a combination virus includes an avian virulence factor and a human transmissibility factor, you get the Martian Death Flu.

                Okay. That still sounds like a mutation to me.

                It's more of a new hybrid species, like mules and triticale.

                I still haven't heard anything that supports spending the billions you want to put into immediate reaction to a possible threat.

                Just spend a few seconds thinking through the math. A bad influenza pandemic would kill around 1% of young, healthy people (1918 flu killed

                • It's more of a new hybrid species, like mules and triticale.

                  Mules don't replicate. I don't think the analogy works.

                  Just spend a few seconds thinking through the math. A bad influenza pandemic would kill around 1% of young, healthy people (1918 flu killed 2.5% of those infected). The U.S. has about 75 million people in the 15-34 age group, so that would mean about a million would die. About $500k/person/lifetime in economic productivity would be lost, destroying roughly $500 billion dollars of future G

                  • Forgive me, but your "math" seems more like incomplete statistics. The elderly are typically hit hardest by influenza.

                    By ordinary influenza. Virulent influenza evokes a powerful response by the immune system, causing a raging viral pneumonia that kills within hours. It therefore hits people with strong immune systems the hardest, which means the young and healthy drop like flies. (The SARS virus does the same thing, which is why it got such attention.) For those with weaker immune systems--such as infan

      • One wonders what you would have said about the Spanish flu which became pandemic and killed millions worldwide. Before it mutated to become highly transmissible and took off, it also only showed "the potential for danger". Afterward, of course, it moved far too fast for vaccination to stop it.

        I'm almost afraid to ask what you think of the successful eradication of smallpox, or the efforts to finally get rid of polio (also a mere handful of deaths each year... due completely to our efforts to do the same to

    • At any rate, even if it does make the transition, I do believe this would be the last major flu pandemic. The next time people will not be so complacent. The billions the first-world nations have just pledged to fight Avian Flu will be pledged much more quickly.

      The thing is, I'm not sure how much money matters here. The problem seems to be that we don't know how to make an effective vaccine to fight a mutant strain until we've got a sample of the actual strain; generic H5N1 isn't good enough. The time t

    • Wasn't there an expected pandemic many years ago where a vaccine was quickly developed and proceeded to be deliverered to all Americans, but in the aftermath it was determined that the actual virus only killed one person and the vaccine killed hundreds?

      I recall reading about it, but don't remember any other details other than the person killed as a result of the virus may have been a navy guy.
  • Factory farmed chickens are already pumped full of antibiotics... does this mean that they will now be pumped full of HSN1 vaccine in the future? Both are theorecically used for the purpose of keeping them healthy, but the long term negative effects of eating antibiotic-riddled chicken is still not known. HSN1 vaccine passed from chicken to human might not have the happiest effects.

    • In the dusty recesses of my memory, I seem to recall some experimentation where they sprayed benign bacteria on chickens. The theory goes that the competition for resources and the ample supply of non-harmful bacteria would reduce the sustainable population of harmful bacteria.

      I find it interesting that being too clean of all bacteria can actually have harmful effects. We're really colony organisms after all. I wondered whatever happened with it?

    • Hey idiots (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Avian flu is a virus. A vaccine does not work the same way as an antibiotic. The birds get dosed once or twice and then their bodies learn to fight of Avian Flu. The vaccine does not stick around in their systems for a long time.

          Speling Troll
    • why would someone overuse a vaccin
      overusing a vaccin will not increase their effect
      nor will it make the poultry or cattle healthier or juicier.
      ...a vaccin is to be taken once

      you take vaccins which contain death or weakened viruses so your
      immunesystem has the time to adapt itself and produce proper anti bodies
      once the anti bodies are created they will be in your body untill the day you die
      and you will be immune against the virus

      obviously you don't know how a vaccin nor antibiotics work!
    • I don't think the problem is in eating chicken pumped full of antibiotics (the cooking will destroy them,) but rather that it creates a population perfectly suited for breeding antibiotic resistant strains of disease.

      For example now we're starting to see some pretty beefy strain of salmonella.
  • ...a few months ago and here it is why it's stupid.

    This is the animal-vaccine they are talking about. It offers next to nothing protection from a yet non-existant human to human spreading version of avian flu.

    Btw, Hungary's one of the leading vaccine developing countries in avian flu research.

    There are already a huge demand for the animal-to-human spreading vaccination worldwide because of the huge media hype. This version of the disease only kills people with frequent contact with animals, still peop

  • 1918 Flu was Bird Flu (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DigitalRaptor ( 815681 ) on Friday January 27, 2006 @01:18PM (#14580800)
    Recently researchers were able to recreate the 1918 flu that killed 100 million around the world, and what they found was a little alarming. The 1918 flu jumped directly from birds to humans and became transmissable between humans.

    If the current bird flu manages that, there will be an 18 month siege on the economy the likes of which our generations have never seen as borders are shut down and vital supply chains are broken.

    Hopefully this new advance offers some hope. Who knows if a pandemic will happen (well, one will happen without a doubt because they have on average every 30 years for the last 300, but we just don't know if this bird flu is the next one), it's just a roll of the dice everytime a human gets infected whether it will mutate.

    • If the current bird flu manages that, there will be an 18 month siege on the economy the likes of which our generations have never seen as borders are shut down and vital supply chains are broken.

      It would also mean, computer technology, telecomutting, and communication via internet would be much more important than it is now. Possibly creating an internet only society to keep from getting each infected.

      Although maybe not really desirable...

      I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to go to people's houses in a

      • Re:1918 Flu was Bird Flu (Score:4, Insightful)

        by DigitalRaptor ( 815681 ) on Friday January 27, 2006 @02:40PM (#14581998)
        The problem is, what happens when the power goes out because everyone who works at the powerplant is dead, infected, taking care of sick family, or unable / unwilling to come to work?

        Same with the ISP, the hospital (which has no medicine anyway), the grocery store (which has no food anyway), the gas station (which has no gas or goodies to sell anyway).

        People don't realize how much our society relies on JIT, Just In Time delivery. Most stores have less than a week of food on hand and it is constantly replenished. Most gas stations have less than a week of gas onhand. Most hospitals have less than a few weeks medicine on hand.

        If the bird flu becomes human to human transmissible, it won't be pretty, and we won't be sitting at home surfing the `net with a Starbucks. Hopefully we'll have food, water, and electricity.

        • The problem is, what happens when the power goes out because everyone who works at the powerplant is dead, infected, taking care of sick family, or unable / unwilling to come to work?

          Same with the ISP, the hospital (which has no medicine anyway), the grocery store (which has no food anyway), the gas station (which has no gas or goodies to sell anyway).

          Haven't you seen Day of the Dead? (j/k their exscuse was that everything was nuclear and was why they had electricity was on in the mall)

          But seriously, the in

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday January 27, 2006 @01:38PM (#14581073)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...than yet another Google/Apple/MS press release? Perhaps this is off topic, but I'm glad /. now lists the "small" topics because the "big" ones aren't worth their hype lately.

    Let's see... saving lives or advancing the cause of celebrity? Which is more important in a Slashdot world?
  • Seriously, why are we talking about this as if it's dangerous to humans? The blurb states that this virus has killed 80 people so far. Regular old influeza kills 250,000 to 500,000 per year. I know there is the risk of it spreading and mutating and causing a pandemic. But is that really so likely that all this attention is justified?

    It reminds me of the West Nile Virus hype. We heard about West Nile for months and months as if it was the black death or some such thing. For the record West Nile p

    • see mmell's post, two clicks above yours
    • Avian flu is now endemic amongst birds in South Asia, and was reportedly suspected to be endemic amongst birds in Turkey (which I still find bitterly ironic)

      It may have only killed 80 people so far, but thats over 50% of the 150 or so people that have been infected. If the mortality rate is as severe when the virus mutates into a form more transmitable between humans then we're in real trouble - estimates of 150,000,000 deaths worldwide would ensure that someone you know personally will die.

      There arent
    • Regular influenza has the potential to kill individuals whose immune system is weak. Avian influenza kills individuals with strong, healthy immune systems. Big difference. People who say "I have a strong immune system, Avian Flu won't affect me" are clueless. In fact, if an outbreak occurs, they'll be the first ones to go.

  • Making the vaccine is just the first step. Manufacturing ramp-ups and other time delays mean that it will still probably be at least two or three years before this vaccine is actually in use.

    Of course, it will likely be in use where it's needed most - in Asia - sooner than it is here. That's not because of any altruistic motives on the part of the drug manufacturers (although they often claim that it is), it's because those countries have far fewer regulations, safeguards, an
  • It is my understanding that vaccines are generally strain-specific to the virus they target (hence the new Flu shot every year). Since this vaccine is for the current H5N1 Strain, which does not seem to transmit human-to-human effectively enough to really pose much of a pandemic risk, what good is it going to be against a mutated strain that actually poses a risk? Would it be effective as a starting point for a vaccine against a future strain? Or is this just something that will save the animals but have mi

  • A lot of folks out there, particularly in the United States, believe that:

    • Genetic engineering is evil.
    • Scientists, and especially biologists, are atheistic minions of Satan out to destroy True Christianity (tm)
    • The End Times (tm) are upon us, and God will unleash all manner of Bad Stuff, including plagues, to usher in the Apocalypse

    So, I can't help but wonder what these folks will do when the fecal material hits the air circulating device. Will they stand by their principles, or will they rationalize t

    • I'm not going to dispute all that, but I'd give the "common folk" a little more credit. While they might have problems with the flourescent pigs mentioned on Slashdot recently, the production of vaccines isn't all that strange. It has long been common to apply a mild infection to prevent worse. It used to be a tradition for parents to take their children to a household where another child had measles or chicken pox to get it over with early before it became a life-threatening illness later in life.

      There
    • I am sure that when push comes to shove, the folks will have convinced themselves that an all-knowing loving God can use the evil Genetic Engineering, the atheistic minions, to benefit the chosen few in whatever mysterious way He wishes. And, that the chosed need to be kept around until the correct Apocalyptic Plague, cause dying of the previous plague might cause one to suffer some afterlife inconveniences. So, their principles need not be compromised, because their logic need not be rational. And their ra
    • Here is a principle: God does not want FOOLS for sons and daughters. He wants smart folks that know how to protect themselves from the evil that infests this world.
      Even if that protection comes from using wicked people, their wicked wealth or even their wicked genetic engineering.

      You claim to know the principles that are taught in the christian faith when you ask if "they will stand by their principles" or use science to save themselves, yet, you did not know the principle i state above taught by Jesus
    • So, I can't help but wonder what these folks will do when the fecal material hits the air circulating device. Will they stand by their principles, or will they rationalize their way into the vaccination line?

      1: The plagues have begun.
      2: I'm still here.
      3: The Rapture has been and gone, and didn't take me, and so few were saved that we didn't even notice it.
      4: Therefore, I'm not one of the Saved.
      5: Therefore, I'm one of the Damned.
      6: Therefore, I might as well please myself and have the flu shots.
      7: F

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