Avian Flu

[Helix]

Most of us know about H5N1, the deadly avain flu that kills 2/3 of the infected. The governments have reappy dropped the ball on this. We are in shortage of vaccines and the Chinese are not trying (to my knoweldge) to contain the problem as well as they should. The U.S. is too busy chasing bioterror (a plausible threat...if we had proof) to really contirbute. So, what can be done?

[zyncod]

Um.. Not ever elect a Bush to office again?

 

The research strategies require NIH money, the vaccine production requires somebody who's not in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry to tell them what to do, and the Chinese/Vietnamese need to change their poultry production patterns.

[Helix]

Yes, that's all too true. Vaccine development is at a non-existant pace, what are we going to do in a pandemic? It's scary, truly frightening, to think about a global pandemic .

[zyncod]

It's going to happen unless global warming or nuclear weapons destroy us first. 6 billion human beings (that are constantly traveling) on a planet this size are just too fertile a playground for pathogens. It doesn't have to be avian flu. Our grandchildren are going to live in a very different world from the one of today.

[muntedkowhai]

there has been some research done on H5N1.

ingenius research using an eight plasmid system that will allow vaccines to be grown outside of chicken eggs.

the reason that there is no vaccine for H5N1 is because it can not grow in the chicken eggs without killing the embryo too fast. it only lasts about 2 days or so. (This is due to the lethal few amino acids observed in the HA region of its genome)

The alteration of this amino acids have proven to attenuate the viruse in mice and if more money is poured into the region, it will be possible not only to have a vaccine for H5N1 but ease the pain of influenza shortages. (and have back stocks of possible antigenic changes)

 

if you are interested in reading on this paper,

Eight plasmid system for rapid generation of influenza virus vaccines.

Vaccine.20.2002.3165-3170

[Helix]

Right but also it evolves at a breakneck pace. After each replication (making new viruses in the host cell) the genome mutates a bit. RNA doesn't "proofread" its copies at all. Avian flu can mutate so fast that vaccines will be obsolete months after they're created. It's the same thing with Influenze type B (common cold). There needs to be a vaccine that attacks stable molecules like M2. Not everything in the virus' genome changes, we have to exploit that.

[Kyrisch]

Um.. Not ever elect a Bush to office again?

Yeah, "save the environment; plant a Bush back in Texas!"

[Helix]

He's really off the ball about this avian flu issue. Here we have a virus with a stunning evolution rate that is bearing down on us in pandemic proportions and he isn't even concerned. If this hits, it'll be bad.

[rakuenso]

thats why i live in canada, even though our healthcare system is going to FUBAR us anyways