US to test child bird flu vaccine

Right after new cases of bird flu had emerged in Austria and Germany, scientists from St. Luis in US announced they were going to test a vaccine against the deadly strain of bird flu on 120 children aged between two and nine.

The vaccine is made from an inert form of the potentially lethal H5N1 virus found in Vietnam and has been already tested by the National Institutes of Health on adults. Scientists report that there is no risk for the children who are taking part in the trials because if there were any of the side effects, they would be mild and include sore arm and low-grade fever that could be easily treated.

The vaccine is being made for children because they are more vulnerable and present a major link in diseases spreading to pandemic proportions.
Scientists fear that they won’t be able to creates enough amounts of vaccine if flu pandemic rose as the vaccine is grown in hens' eggs, with one egg per dose.

While some researchers feel the vaccine should be made and stockpiled, others believe it would be best to wait for the exact type of virus that emerges in any future flu pandemic.

However, one thing is certain: More and more people are concentrating on this disease like never before and more and more pharmaceutical companies are trying to create an H5N1 vaccine.