“The problem with influenza is that it’s not just one virus. Like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it’s always evolving the next variant and we’re always left to chase where the virus was, not where it’s going to be.”
-Jonah Sacha, Senior Author of the Study.
There holds a lot of promise in the development of a universal vaccine that confers life-long immunity. The study’s findings are published on July 19th in the journal Nature Communications. The Oregon Health & Science University have created a vaccine that is ready to be used against a virus that would most likely trigger the next pandemic. The vaccine gave off a robust immune response that was observed in non-human primates. These primates were exposed to the H1N1 avian influenza virus. Except, there is one unavoidable fact; that the conferred immunity was from the 1918 influenza virus. The flu was first picked up by Europe, America and areas of Asia before eventually reaching a status of complete global coverage. The earliest case of this was documented in March 1918 and was recorded among the US troops. It is also called as the ‘Spanish Flu’. It is estimated that more number of people have died from this flu compared to the World War I.
Prof Jonah Sacha, Chief of the Pathobiology Division says “It’s exciting because in most cases, this kind of basic science research advances the science very gradually; in 20 years, it might become something. This could actually become a vaccine in five years or less. It’s a very viable approach, for viruses of pandemic potential, it’s critical to have something like this. We set out to test influenza but we don’t know what’s going to come next.” Researchers have mentioned that 6 out of the 11 non-human primates were inoculated against the virus that have wrecked havoc over a century ago, have managed to survive the deadly exposure. However, the six unvaccinated primate groups that were exposed to the virus succumbed to the disease. Douglas Reed, an Associate Professor of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research says “Should a deadly virus such as H5N1 infect a human and ignite a pandemic, we need to quickly validate and deploy a new vaccine.”
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