Vaccination News

Mutations in the bird flu virus have been found in two infected people in Egypt, in a form that might be resistant to the medication most commonly used to treat the deadly disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The mutations in the H5N1 virus strain were not drastic enough to make the virus infectious enough to spark a pandemic, WHO officials said. But more such mutations could prompt scientists to rethink current treatment strategies.

Samples taken from two bird flu patients in Egypt — a 16-year-old girl and her 26-year-old uncle — were not as responsive as regular H5N1 viruses to Tamiflu, a drug also know as oseltamivir that is used to treat the disease, the officials said.

The girl and her uncle died in late December, as did the man's 35-year-old sister, although she has not yet been confirmed as having had H5N1. The three — who lived together in Gharbiyah province, 50 miles northwest of Cairo — fell ill within days of one another after being exposed to sick ducks.

WASHINGTON - The government awarded contracts Wednesday to three drug makers tasked with developing a vaccine for bird flu using technology that will help stretch the supply of the medicine.

The contracts, valued at $132.5 million, may provide a way for more Americans to have access to a vaccine in the event of a pandemic, said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

The vaccines would use an immune booster called an adjuvant, which reduces the amount of active ingredient per dose that's necessary to achieve protection from the virus.

The first human trial of a DNA vaccine designed to prevent H5N1 avian influenza infection began late last month, when the vaccine was administered to the first volunteer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Maryland in the US.

Scientists from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the NIH Institutes, designed the vaccine.

The study will involve 45 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60. Fifteen will receive placebo injections and 30 will receive three injections of the trial vaccine over 2 months and will be followed for 1 year. NIAID researchers will measure immune responses to the vaccine, assess its safety, and compare its potency to more traditional vaccine approaches.

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA are among drugmakers searching for new weapons against influenza viruses that evade protection from existing vaccines.

Each year, a new strain of the flu virus circles the globe and kills as many as a half million people annually worldwide. As the virus changes annually into forms that can circumvent the human immune system, scientists are seeking the first universal vaccine against the flu.

To defeat the flu, doctors will need new vaccines with unprecedented power, said Albert Osterhaus, the head of virology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Such a vaccine should be able to protect against many strains at once, including the avian form arising in Asia that threatens to become a pandemic deadly to tens of millions of people.

By Darren Schuettler BANGKOK (Reuters) - A vaccine against the killer H5N1 bird flu virus could be licensed for human use in a year, but when to use it is becoming a "tricky issue," a senior World Health Organization official said on Wednesday.

Drug companies are racing to find a cure for the avian influenza virus which has killed 154 people since 2003 and fanned fears of a global human pandemic. At least a dozen manufacturers have clinical trials underway or planned.

"We can expect that a year from now there would be vaccines against H5N1 influenza strains that would be licensed for human use," Marie-Paule Kieny, head of the WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research, told reporters on the final day of a WHO vaccine conference in Bangkok.

BOSTON -- Independent Third-Party Analysis by World's Leading Provider of Integrated Preclinical Support Services Confirms HepaLife’s PBS-1 Cells Are Free from Exogenous Agents, Bacteria and Fungi

HepaLife Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: HPLF) (FWB: HL1) (WKN: 500625) today announced confirmation that the Company’s patented ‘PBS-1’ cells, under development for avian influenza vaccines, are free of pathogens, diseases, bacteria, and potentially harmful viruses. Pathogen-free cells are critical for the rapid development of novel, cell-culture based vaccine production to help protect against the spread of influenza viruses among humans, including potentially the high pathogenicity H5N1 avian flu virus.

"The global poultry industry has suffered direct losses of 2 billion dollars due to lower prices. This is equal to 14 percent of the total value of world trade," National Avian Influenza Control Commission chairman Bayu Krisnamurthi said, as quoted by major newspaper The Jakarta Post.

Apart from the direct financial losses, Bayu said, indirect losses had also been severe, including lower incomes for poultry breeders, lower poultry consumption and lower nutritional intake as a result of people's unwillingness to consume poultry products.

Two weeks ago, international warnings were posted of adverse reactions to the medication among children and youth. Health Canada didn't issue a public update about the flu drug until Wednesday.
Health Canada's bulletin said that since February 2000, 84 Canadians have had adverse reactions after taking the drug, including 10 who died and seven adults who reported "psychiatric adverse events."

This year alone there was 13 reported reactions to the drug including 3 women aged 95, 88 and 81 that died. Tamiflu is used to treat the flu and combat the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Health Canada spokesman Alastair Sinclair says there is no reason for Canadians to be worried.

source - Digital Journal 

TORONTO (Reuters) - Internet speculation over a potential human case of bird flu in the Canadian province of Quebec is untrue, health officials said on Wednesday.

"It's a false rumor," Dr. Patrick Dolce, head of infection control at the hospital in Rimouski, Quebec, told Reuters. "Everything is false; there is no patient, no nothing."

His remarks echoed those of Quebec Health Ministry spokeswoman Helene Gingras, who also said the rumors were "not true."

But the officials insist the decision to slaughter pigs and dogs was not unusual and that the step has been taken in other countries without public knowledge.

Park Kyung-hee, an official at Iksan city hall, said Wednesday 426 pigs and four dogs have been killed along with 127,200 chickens and 6.8 million eggs.

The Agriculture Ministry said earlier this week it suspected bird flu had killed 6,000 chickens at a farm in the southwest of the country that lies on a path for migratory birds.

"It is the H5N1 strain," a ministry official said by telephone on Saturday, after test results.

Another news just hit all news agencies' websites. The only question that I have is how much did these experts get paid to voice their message that can lead to major fear and panic. How much did GSK and Roche pay? And why the normal influenza vaccines can be helpful against bird-flu virus?! What is the reason of this move? Do GSK and Roche need to flush their stock of vaccines because their expiration date is getting close, again?

Leading scientists say the UK government is failing to take advantage of scientific developments in the fight to prevent a flu pandemic.

A Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences report says more than one anti-viral drug should be stockpiled.

It warns the H5N1 virus can develop resistance to Tamiflu, and says the drug Relenza should also be stockpiled. 

The second batch of vaccination, which is underway in 63 out of64 cities and provinces nationwide, is scheduled to be complete by late this month, said the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam, to prevent reoccurrence of bird flu outbreaks, is intensifying fights against fowl smuggling, and monitoring poultry transport and trade.

Both mutations already have popped up in humans infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

They've been seen in bird flu viruses isolated from two people in Azerbaijan and from one person in Iraq, according to the Japanese scientists. Neither mutation has been seen among the more than 600 H5N1 viruses isolated from birds.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Scientists have discovered a new strain of bird flu that has infected humans in China, which could arouse fresh fears of a possible pandemic and spur further interest in experimental drugs and vaccines.

Dr. Robert Webster of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, along with other scientists from the U.S. and China, announced "the emergence and pre-dominance of a previously uncharacterized" substrain of bird flu, appearing in Chinese poultry since late 2005.

The scientists, who published their findings on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Web site, also reported that the substrain of H5N1, also known as bird flu, had "caused recent human infection in China." Researchers noted that some of these cases were residents of urban areas remote from poultry farms.

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- SRI International said Tuesday it has been awarded a $56.9 million U.S. government contract to develop avian-flu drugs and antibodies.

The company said the contract -- awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health -- is "to provide preclinical services for the development of drugs and antibodies for anti-infective therapeutics."

Under the deal, SRI will provide five years of support for the development of treatments for avian flu, SARS, West Nile virus, hepatitis, and biodefense pathogens and toxins.

The article below raises two questions:

1. Who will actually introduce bird flu to US birds? CDC? Beef industry or Pharma giant?
2. What does Greenpeace think about this?
3. Why US citizens let their administration use fear of the bird-flu as an instrument of influence?

(that would be 3 questions, though) 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government has approved the use of firefighting foam to kill chickens quickly if there is an outbreak of deadly bird flu in commercial poultry.

The Agriculture Department says water-based foam can be an alternative to carbon dioxide, which has traditionally been used to quickly kill large quantities of birds.

TORONTO, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Generex Biotechnology said Monday it would begin the first human trial of its avian flu vaccine in Lebanon.

The Canadian firm said it has entered into a deal with the Beirut-based Lebanese-Canadian Hospital to conduct a clinical trial of the synthetic vaccine developed by Generex subsidiary Antigen Express.

The egg-based avian-flu vaccine is based on simple peptide-synthesis technology and as such can be made quickly, easily and cheaply, Generex said.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been detected in at least 55 countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. This often fatal disease is of pressing concern because it can be transmitted from birds to humans, although such transmissions have been rare so far.

Unfortunately, according to a Roundtable article in the November 2006 BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), critical information about incidence of the disease in wild birds--even the species of the infected bird--is often recorded inaccurately or not recorded at all. The deficiencies in data collection, the authors write, "can lead to unwarranted assumptions and conclusions that in turn affect public perceptions, practical control and management measures, and the disposition of resources."

LONDON (AFX) - Norwood Immunology Ltd said, following a revision of terms for the acquisition of Bestewil Holding Ltd, holding company of Virosome Biologicals Ltd, it has agreed to buy the company for around 48 mln shares and 3.5 mln eur in cash.

Earlier this month Norwood allowed an option to buy the Dutch flu vaccine company lapse, having paid 725,00 eur for the call. But the company said now the revised acquisition terms have been agreed it is to proceed with the purchase.

Based on the company's closing mid market share price of 20 pence on October 26, and a 0.67 eur/1 stg exchange rate this is equivalent to a total consideration of 11.9 mln stg.

source 

MALVERN, Pa. — Drug developer Novavax Inc. on Tuesday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed to test the company's bird flu vaccine against a live strain of the H5N1 virus that causes the disease.

Under the agreement, Novavax will provide the CDC with a year's supply of its virus-like particle, or VLP, H5N1 vaccine. Novavax also plans to begin human testing of the vaccine in the first half of 2007.

VLPs are structures that are identical to a virus but lack the genetic material required to replicate, allowing for the body to produce an immune response without risking an infection.

Novavax shares rose 47 cents, or 11.5 percent, to $4.57 in premarket electronic trading, after closing at $4.10 Monday on the Nasdaq.

source 

A new strain of vaccine-resistant H5N1 bird flu virus has emerged in China and is spreading through southeast Asia, Hong Kong researchers report.

"The implications are that current control measures are ineffective with dealing with the evolutionary changes that H5N1 undergoes," warned Dr. Yi Guan, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Diseases at the University of Hong Kong and lead author of a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new strain has become dominant throughout the region, replacing other variants of the virus, the report said.

About 24 percent of the nearly 1,700 Americans polled from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5 said they would not have anyone to take care of them if they were sick at home for seven to 10 days; 45 percent of respondents living alone said they would have no one to care for them if stricken with the disease; and 34 percent of black adults said the same thing.

Right. Let's see the death rate from bird-flu disease:

Since it re-emerged in 2003, H5N1 bird flu has infected 256 people, killing 151, mainly in southeast Asia. Although it has been difficult for humans to catch, health authorities fear it could evolve into a form more easily passed between people and trigger a pandemic.

Do you know that only in South Africa there are more people dying from AIDS DAILY? Shouldn't there be more emphasis in this direction?

Anyways, the article is below. Read the "breaking news from WHO", if you feel like.

VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) today announced that a single injection of the company's lead avian influenza (flu) DNA vaccine candidate provided 100% protection in ferrets against lethal challenge with a highly virulent H5N1 virus (Vietnam/1203/2004). Conventional vaccines under development for avian flu typically have required two or more doses in humans, even with novel adjuvants, to produce the immunogenicity levels expected to provide protection.

and I don't blame them. Looking at infection and mortality rate mentioned in this very article, I see that the bird-flu does not pose the same risk, as for example HIV/AIDS or Cancer.

According to the WHO a bird flu pandemic is a serious threat; 256 cases of confirmed avian flu have been reported to the WHO, which have resulted in 151 deaths.

Shall we compare these numbers to daily mortality rate due to AIDS in South Africa, for example?

Read more on "ill-prepared" countries..

By Tan Ee Lyn, Reuters, 12 Oct 2006

BEIJING, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A Chinese company that is developing a H5N1 bird flu vaccine for humans plans to kick off a second clinical trial before the end of the year and will have its production capacity expanded ten-fold by mid-2007.

"The second clinical trial should be over by July or August next year, just before the flu season begins," Yin Weidong, managing director of state-backed Beijing Sinovac Biotech Co., told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

He tried to ease concerns over using a strain of the virus found in Vietnam in the vaccine, saying it would offer some protection against other H5N1 strains.

DEERFIELD -- Baxter International said preliminary clinical results of its influenza vaccine are encouraging.

The company said that the vaccine to counteract bird flu is "highly immunogenic" and produces functional antibodies to H5N1 influenza even at the lowest dose, as shown by results from the first two phases of clincical trials.