British scientists are on the brink of producing a panacea that would hit back all the major types of disease especially influenza A – the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu.
A long lasting immunity would be acquired with a few injections and the researches are planning to test on humans for the first time in forth coming months.
A similar universal flu vaccine, being developed by Swiss vaccine firm Cytos Biotechnology, could also be tested on people in 2007 and the vaccines would be available in the market around five years later.
Notably, the vaccines would be portable to make than the conventional jabs, meaning huge quantities could be stockpiled against a global outbreak of bird flu.
According to the statistical data, more than 50,000 people are killed in Britain alone because of bird flu. Nevertheless, it also stated that a bug could be more fatal claiming more than 700,000 lives. Normal winter flu consumes 12,000 lives per year in the UK.
Although the antidote to fight against the virus is there but constant, mutation of the thing makes it difficult to create just one flu vaccine.
Thus, the universal vaccines targets a protein called M2 because it has hardly changed during the past 100 years.
The protein is discovered in all types of Influenza A, including the current bird flu and the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which killed up to 50 million world wide.
Generally such types of vaccines have to pass as a minimum five years of human test before entering into market in case a bird flu pandemic occurs before that, they could be made more quickly available.
While it is too early to predict its effect on humans, an initial course of two or three shots could provide long-lasting immunity, topped up with booster shots given every five to ten years.
The new vaccines only protect against influenza A, the version of the bug responsible for pandemic flu and the most severe cases of winter flu.
However, it may also be possible to create a similar jab against influenza B, which causes a milder form of winter flu.
In addition, researchers are of the view that there are possibilities of the mutation of M2 protein in near future, meaning the jab will have to be frequently reformulated.