US scientists develop new basis for H5N1 vaccine

 

 

American scientists have used bird flu virus samples from Egypt to develop a new basis for a vaccine against the toxic H5N1 strain that continues to circulate, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

 

The WHO said the candidate virus was developed at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, supported by the ministry of health and population of Egypt, for providing virus specimens.

 

Pharmaceutical companies including Novartis are already working on vaccines against H5N1 bird flu, which has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds since 2003 as it spread to 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

 

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization reported 250 outbreaks of H5N1 in birds in February alone - in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam.

 

In its statement, it said flu experts were continuing to monitor the evolution of bird flu and other flu viruses and stressed the need for countries to keep providing samples of identified strains.