Pre-pandemic H5N1 Vaccine Can Save Lives

While a pre-pandemic vaccine might not stop you from getting infected with avian flu should it mutate over to humans, it might save lives and buy time until a real pandemic strain vaccine is developed and distributed.

“Is the world stockpiling pre-pandemic vaccines? That is more valuable than people realise. It may not necessarily protect you from infection with the next plague or the next variant, but it will probably stop you from dying,” influenza expert Robert Webster from the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital said.
“It should confer protection from death though you will still get sick and may get very sick but you have a better chance of survival than if you do not receive a pre-pandemic vaccine.” Companies developing pre-pandemic vaccines told a bird flu conference organised by the Lancet medical journal in Singapore on Wednesday that human clinical trials have so far proven safe, but these require multiple doses — at high dosages — which will inevitably strain global capacity.

Currently, to prepare for the more common strains of the flu, the world can produce around 300 million doses a year, most of which go to more wealthy, developed countries. This is less than five percent of the total world population, making it potentially ineffective against something as virulent as a human transmittable strain of bird flu.

[Daily Times]

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Pre-pandemic H5N1 Vaccine Can Save Lives

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