ViroBlogy

Depiction of virus mixing in a pig http://www.rkm.com.au

In an issue of Virus Research devoted to commemorating the career of Brian Mahy, who retired recently from the CDC and now as Editor-in-Chief of Virus Research, there is a paper by Taubenberger and Kash on the 1918 H1N1 flu – wherein they say the following:

“In a recent set of experiments, it was shown that mice vaccinated with the monovalent 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine were completely protected in a lethal challenge model with the 1918 influenza virus…”

Because the modern pandemic “swine flu” H1N1 HA protein descends directly from the 1918 virus, but in pigs rather than in humans. Remember all the hype around THAT work – resurrecting the legendary Spanish Flu, and how it would kill us all? And here we already have a vaccine, that will completely protect us.

We have vaccine candidates against H5 as well. Time for a universal flu vaccination campaign and pre-emptive strike, people!

Tags: H1N1, H5N1, Influenza, killer flu, swine flu, vaccine

This entry was posted on 17 January, 2012 at 12:16 and is filed under Evolution, General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.