PHA-Exchange> Bird-flu shot ready for trials

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Bird-flu shot ready for trialsFrom: Vern Weitzel 
Bird-flu shot ready for trials
Dennis Chong
The Standard

A vaccine for the deadly H5N1 virus is ready for testing on
humans and is expected to be available in six months, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday.

The United Nations health agency had said in January that a
vaccine may not be available until next winter.

The new vaccine was developed by using a technology that
involves genetic modification of the virus.

Scientists said the vaccine can be easily modified to fight
other strains of bird flu.

``It has revolutionised the development of [flu] vaccine,''
Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University's Department of
Microbiology said yesterday.

The technology, called reverse genetics, allows scientists
to engineer the virus in the laboratory by stitching
together the viral genes, before using them to mass-produce
the vaccine.

``The technology shortened the time to develop a vaccine to
a matter of weeks,'' Robert Webster of the WHO's
Collaborating Laboratory on Influenza, who is also a
visiting professor at the department, said.

``Traditionally it can take two to three months to do
that,'' he said, adding that trials on humans will be
initiated soon in the United States and the vaccine may be
ready for use in six months.

``The safety of the vaccine in humans will be first tested
in the trial study,'' he said.

Webster said the vaccine was based on a strain found in
Vietnam, but it could be modified for other strains with the
help of the new technology. ``We can make a change in the
master strain very very fast.''

But Webster said since the deadly flu virus was genetically
modified, a method never used before to make flu vaccines,
there was always a risk involved.

``Some countries may not like the idea [of using
genetically-modified virus to make a vaccine], but we have
to think of the risks and the benefits.''

Webster said the technology, in principle, can be applied to
develop a vaccine for Sars.

Health experts have warned that the deadly strain of bird
flu may mutate and affect Asia for years or even a decade.
Webster said the vaccine will be evaluated each year to
ensure its effectiveness.

2 March 2004 / 02:00 AM


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