Posted on 08/20/2006 9:35:50 PM PDT by Coleus
For years, the world's vaccine companies have labored in the shadows of the pharmaceutical industry, vilified by parent groups who claim childhood vaccines can cause neurological disorders like autism. Now, almost overnight, these same companies have been thrust to the forefront of a massive campaign to produce a vaccine against pandemic flu. Not since Jonas Salk's work to find a cure for polio in the 1950s have vaccine scientists been so squarely in the vanguard of medicine.
The challenges are vast. The unanswered questions surrounding the influenza virus are profoundly difficult, the process for producing vaccines is slow and unwieldy, and the infrastructure needed to make major advances quickly has suffered from decades of neglect. "I can't emphasize enough how daunting the task is to go about creating the industrial infrastructure to make hundreds of millions of doses in periods of months using technology that is on the drawing board," said Bruce Innis, vice president of clinical research and development for GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in North Carolina.
But with avian flu spreading through flocks in Asia, Europe and Africa, raising the specter of a global pandemic, it's no longer a matter of choice. The race is on.
INSUFFICIENT STOCKPILES
The influenza virus is one of nature's most talented chameleons. Its genetic matter allows for a constant reshuffling of genes. This process, known as antigenic drift, alters the shape of its surface proteins in a way that can fool antibodies generated by the body to seek and destroy older versions of the flu virus. Flu also is what scientists describe as a "superspreader." Its animal and human carriers are highly infectious before they even realize they are ill.
The bird flu virus known as H5N1 is a particularly lethal variant. Beyond wiping out millions of chickens
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
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The race is on.
Thanks for posting.
keep safe ping
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