Word: viruses
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...however, says that so far the virus appears to have stayed relatively stable during the chains of transmission, so it may not be mutating much. Still, the virus's current relatively weak state does not guarantee that it won't return later, much more virulent - which is exactly what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide. As the flu season comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, it may lead to a natural petering out of new swine-flu cases in the U.S. But the strain may continue to circulate aggressively...
...Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the agency has begun cultivating the seed stock of virus needed for a swine flu vaccine. (The current seasonal flu vaccine would not be effective against the swine flu.) "We're moving forward aggressively so that if a decision is made that we need to rev up production to make that vaccine, we would be ready to do so," he said. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine...
...even if the CDC's seed stock of virus were to be released to vaccine makers today, it would take the companies anywhere from four to six months before the first inoculation could be ready for public use. That's because flu-vaccine production - whether for swine or seasonal flu - is time-consuming and laborious, requiring vaccine makers to grow millions of copies of the flu virus in chicken eggs, then purify those bugs into a ready-to-inject formula safe for patients. "We are moving things around to accommodate this and getting our raw materials ready and having...
...ahead, companies such as Sanofi will have to do an about-face, scrapping their current vaccine projects to switch to swine flu. Sanofi and other vaccine makers received the seed stock for the upcoming flu season last January and are now in the midst of culturing and purifying that virus for this fall's flu season. Nevertheless, Cary is confident: "We have two plants that both have the capability of producing what the U.S. market demand is for the seasonal and swine influenza vaccine," she says...
Much has changed since then. Genetic advances have given researchers entirely new ways of developing vaccines. For example, instead of using the entire virus or bacterium to activate the human immune system, new strategies rely on genetic snippets from infectious bugs, which can trigger immunity without the risk of infection...