Total flu cover with one shot

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDFeb 8 2011

In a medical breakthrough, English scientists have developed a so-called “universal” vaccine to influenza - one that protects against all strains of the potentially deadly illness. This would do away with the need for a new vaccine each flu season they say. Seasonal flu affects up to 20 percent of the population and kills an average of 24,600 people each year. This vaccine would act against swine flu as well assure researchers.

The scientists at Oxford University have tested a universal vaccine on 11 healthy volunteers, all aged over 50, who were infected with H3N2 flu virus, comparing their risk for infection with that of 11 healthy volunteers who had not been vaccinated. She monitored the volunteers’ symptoms twice a day, including runny noses, coughs and sore throats, and she calculated how much mucus everyone produced by weighing tissues they used. Though a small study, it was significant in that it was the first vaccine of its type to be tested on people. Lead researcher Dr. Sarah Gilbert said, “Fewer of the people who were vaccinated got flu than the people who weren’t vaccinated.”

The vaccine they have developed targets proteins on the external coat of the flu virus. Till date the flu vaccines had been targeting proteins found inside the virus which mutated fast and necessitated a new vaccine each season. With the new vaccine there would be widespread immunization against influenza without the expense and delays now associated with flu vaccine development believe researchers.

Gilbert said, “If we were using the same vaccine year in, year out, it would be more like vaccinating against other diseases like tetanus… It would become a routine vaccination that would be manufactured and used all the time at a steady level. We wouldn’t have these sudden demands or shortages - all that would stop.” A shot would protect an individual for ten years or longer Gilbert added. The vaccine could provide better protection against flu for older people. Gilbert said that the older people get, the less efficient their immune systems are at making new antibodies. However it will take several more years before the universal vaccine will be ready for commercial use adds the paper.

Adrian Hill, director of Oxford’s Jenner Institute explained, “The problem with flu is that you’ve got lots of different strains and they keep changing…Occasionally one comes out of wildfowl or pigs and we’re not immune to it. We need new vaccines and we can’t make the vaccines fast enough.”

Mark Fielder, a medical microbiologist at Kingston University added, “This study represents some potentially very exciting findings with positive implications not only for influenza but possibly for infectious disease in a wider context. The findings are extremely encouraging in terms of the apparent efficacy of the virus and that it appears to be a safe formulation. However, I think that a larger trial will be able to confirm these findings and let this technology be taken forward.”