Only partial success for avian flu vaccine

Researchers claimed only partial success in the largest human trial of an avian flu vaccine. They showed the vaccine is safe and generates what appears to be a protective immune response, but it worked just half the time and only when given in a total dose that is twelve times the amount used in seasonal flu vaccines, study leader John Treanor of the University of Rochester says. “Every journey starts with the first step,” Treanor says, saying researchers hope to use chemicals called adjuvants to boost the vaccine’s effectiveness.

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The study, in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, marks a milestone in the joint government-private sector push to guard against avian flu by developing new vaccines and better ways of producing them. Without an effective vaccine, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, a flu pandemic in the USA could kill 2 million people.