Bird-flu vaccine soon
A new vaccine for the killer bird-flu virus could be available within a year, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
But if an influenza pandemic hits sooner, vaccine licensing could be speeded up, according to Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the vaccine research initiative at WHO.More than 200 vaccine experts yesterday wound up the seventh Global Vaccine Research Forum held in Bangkok. The WHO reported Sanofi, CSL and Omnivest had completed human vaccine trials for the current strain of the H5N1 virus. In all, 17 companies are conducting or planning to conduct 23 clinical trials using various production techniques and virus particles, nine of which will be finalised by the end of this year. There is no information about which company will get the first licence. The United States National Institutes of Health website reported the first clinical trial of an H5N1 vaccine began in April 2005 by Sanofi Pasteur. It tested its experimental vaccine in 451 healthy adults aged 18 to 64 to see if it was safe and generated an immune response. A March 20 New England Journal of Medicine report showed a "2-dose regimen" of this vaccine generated the highest immune response compared with other doses. Several countries are already stockpiling pre-pandemic H5N1 vaccines. Kieny warned immunising people "without sufficient indicators" would do more harm than good. Speaking on the sidelines of the four-day Bangkok forum she said past attempts in the US to immunise people for swine flu had severe side effects. In 1976 millions of Americans were vaccinated against swine flu after an outbreak at a US army base triggered fears of a pandemic. It never eventuated and the vaccine was blamed for a rise in cases of a rare neurological illness. Bird flu is still at stage three of a pandemic alert - that means there is no effective transmission between humans, she said, adding licensing of an H5N1 vaccine needed to be based on the spread of the virus. WHO revealed its global pandemic influenza action plan in October. It ensures enough vaccine to inoculate people in all counties. Meanwhile, Monday saw WHO launch a new global effort to find a malaria vaccine. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than one million people and infects up to 500 million each year. The Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap aims to develop and licence a first-generation vaccine by 2015. Arthit Khwankhom The Nation
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