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Poison Watch Title: Companies Determined To Hustle Bird Flu Vaccines Companies Determined To Hustle Bird Flu Vaccines From Patricia Doyle, PhD dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com 3-23-6 Hello, Jeff - I would not even post this one. FYI, The theory is presented below that vaccine is a panacea. It is NOT. And what, pray tell, is a 'pre-pandemic' vaccine? The current prepandemic vaccine (whatever that is) will NOT protect against a newly-emerged pandemic strain or strains of H5. It would probably take a minimum of ONE year before a vaccine using a new strain could even be developed, and such a vaccine would probably not have the efficacy desired. In short, forget vaccines. The best defense is to NOT get infected. Patty Pandemic Risk Remains By Adam Beaumont http://Swissinfo.org 3-24-6 Human flu viruses prefer to infect cells in areas like the nose and windpipe, thereby increasing the risk of transmission. But the Federal Health Office warns that this behaviour could change if the H5N1 virus mutates. Patrick Mathys, an epidemiologist at the health office, told swissinfo that the findings offered a possible explanation for the small number of human cases over the past couple of years. "This means that the virus load when you sneeze or cough is obviously too small to infect people," he said. "This is not bad news at all but you cannot say we are safe now. We still think H5N1 has the potential to mutate into a pandemic strain." The H5N1 virus has killed more than 100 people and infected over 180 worldwide since it re-emerged in late 2003. People infected with the virus have virtually all been in close contact with diseased birds but scientists fear it could mutate into a highly infectious pandemic strain that could kill millions. So far avian flu has been found in 24 wild birds in Switzerland but there have been no human cases. New developments The discovery, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, comes just days after another more worrying development earlier in the week. On Monday researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the H5N1 virus had evolved into two separate strains. The health office described the announcement as "bad news" for the development of a vaccine. The Swiss government has placed an order with France's Sanofi Pasteur for 100,000 doses of a pre-pandemic vaccine against H5N1. The intention is to distribute these to frontline workers dealing with infected birds. "As soon as you have two strains you probably have to develop two strains of a vaccine as well, and this could make it more difficult to have a vaccine ready against H5N1," warned Mathys. Infectious diseases Christian Ruef, associate head of infectious diseases at Zurich University Hospital, told swissinfo that it was to be expected that the virus would evolve. "That's what happens with normal flu strains. They are quite unstable and we get mutations throughout the year, and over the years we get small shifts. For example, the vaccine we use for normal human flu does not completely or optimally cover strains that are circulating now," he said. Ruef said that when a pandemic arrived one strain of bird flu was likely to prove dominant and drugmakers would direct a vaccine against this virus. Mathys added that the Sanofi vaccine was still going through clinical trails and was unlikely to be ready until later this year. But he said that if bird flu was to spread among Swiss poultry flocks before the drug had been cleared, the government might decide to use it anyway. "If the situation worsens and we have mass outbreaks in poultry in Switzerland and we have to protect the personnel culling poultry then we will probably buy the vaccine at a stage when not all clinical trials have passed," he said. "If some clinical trials are missing it's really difficult to say whether the vaccine is 100 per cent safe or whether it works. You can probably say it's safe based on what we've seen so far but whether it protects you very well against the circulating H5N1, you can't say." http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect =106&sid=6572862&cKey=1143145894000 Patricia A. Doyle, DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at: http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website: http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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