New Vaccine against H5N1 Bird Flu Virus

    Scientists from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong and the US National Institute of Health (NIH) have developed a H5N1 bird flu vaccine by piggybacking it on the well-tested and highly successful smallpox vaccine. Initial tests on mice show the vaccine to be highly effective, making it a potentially sound solution to a H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which many scientists have been concerned about. Researchers say that the new vaccine has proven safe in experiments on mice and that "a single vaccine dose will provide rapid protective immune responses." Existing facilities used for the production of smallpox vaccines can be used to produce bird flu vaccines without much trouble, thereby reducing costs. Scientists of the University of Hong Kong are going to carry out further clinical experiments in the coming two to three years, and work towards a more effective and all-purpose vaccine to fight H5N1 bird flu.