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| World Home » Life Style » | Sat. Nov 22, 2008 |
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New life time vaccine against flu MIL/Agencies, Aug 6, 2005. Scientists claim to have succeeded in making a vaccine that shall give lifelong protection against all types of flu. According to BBC News, currently, at risk people in the UK - the elderly and ill - need annual flu jabs, and there is no jab available yet guaranteed to beat bird flu. Biotechnology firm Acambis, in Cambridge, the UK, says it hopes its jab will target numerous mutations that presently allow flu to evade attack. However, the work is very early and is years off being tested in humans. Each year winter flu takes lives of around 4,000 people in the UK. Globally, between 500,000 and one million people die each year from influenza. If the bird flu virus currently circulating in Asia were to mutate and spread from person to person it could kill as many people as the 1918 Spanish flu, which claimed between 20 and 40 million lives, experts have warned. Current flu vaccines work by giving immunity to two proteins called haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which are found on the surface of flu viruses. If successful, a single shot of the vaccine could protect a person against all strains of influenza virus, they believe. Dr Thomas Monath, chief scientific officer at Acambis, said: "We aim to avoid the need for annual re-engineering and manufacture of the new product, something that is not yet possible with existing vaccines. "The need to develop a new vaccine each time a different influenza strain emerges often results in long delays before a population can be protected. "The technology also has special importance as a potential means of protecting human populations against pandemic influenza strains."
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