A flu jab that is given just once in a lifetime should be available within five years.
Unlike the current vaccine, it would fight off all strains of the disease, from the winter flu that leaves millions feeling miserable each year, to deadly pandemic viruses.
And unlike the existing jab, the U.S.-developed drug would not have to be given each year.
Described as the ‘holy grail’ of flu research, just one or two shots could provide lifelong protection, a conference held by the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious scientific body, heard yesterday.
Although flu is often thought of as a minor inconvenience, it can be deadly, killing up to 12,000 Britons each year, many of them elderly.
The current flu jab protects only three-quarters of those vaccinated and needs to be reformulated each year to keep on top of changes in the virus.
Influenza
It targets a lollipop-shaped head of a protein that sticks out from the surface of flu particles. The protein is key to infection but the head constantly mutates, meaning it differs from strain to strain.
The new drug, developed at the National Institute of Health in Maryland, uses DNA to trick the body’s immune system into producing antibodies against the protein’s base instead – the ‘lollipop stick’.
Unlike the head, the ‘stick’ changes little from strain to strain, meaning one vaccine should protect against multiple strains of the virus.
Dr Gary Nabel, the institute’s director of vaccine research, used the DNA from the protein to trick animals’ immune systems into producing antibodies that seek out and destroy the bug.
He then gave a ‘booster shot’ of a harmless flu or cold virus to ratchet up the immune response.
This primer-booster approach killed off a flu virus from 2007 and one from 1934, despite the DNA coming from a strain that circulated in 1999.
Mice and ferrets – creatures seen as good predictors of the human course of flu – both fought off potentially deadly flus with the help of the double jab.
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses), that affects birds and mammals. The most common symptoms of the disease are chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness/fatigue and general discomfort.
Influenza
Sore throat, fever and coughs are the most frequent symptoms. In more serious cases, influenza causes pneumonia, which can be fatal, particularly for the young and the elderly. Although it is often confused with other influenza-like illnesses, especially the common cold, influenza is a more severe disease than the common cold and is caused by a different type of virus. Influenza may produce nausea and vomiting, particularly in children, but these symptoms are more common in the unrelated gastroenteritis, which is sometimes called “stomach flu” or “24-hour flu”.
Typically, influenza is transmitted through the air by coughs or sneezes, creating aerosols containing the virus. Influenza can also be transmitted by direct contact with bird droppings or nasal secretions, or through contact with contaminated surfaces.
Airborne aerosols have been thought to cause most infections, although which means of transmission is most important is not absolutely clear. Influenza viruses can be inactivated by sunlight, disinfectants and detergents.As the virus can be inactivated by soap, frequent hand washing reduces the risk of infection.
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Hundreds of infants in Kenya received their first shots against pneumococcal disease on Monday at a special United Nations-backed event to celebrate the global roll-out of vaccines targeting the world’s leading cause of child deaths – pneumonia.
President Mwai Kibaki joined parents, health workers, ambassadors and donors in Nairobi to witness children being immunised as part of the Government’s formal introduction of pneumococcal vaccine in its routine immunisation programme for all children.
Kenya is the first African country to introduce the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine which has been tailored to meet the needs of children in developing countries.
Nicaragua, Guyana, Yemen and Sierra Leone are also rolling out the vaccine with support from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) which brings together governments, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other key players in global health.
Pneumococcal disease currently takes the lives of over a million of people every year – including more than half a million children before their fifth birthday.
Pneumonia is the most common form of serious pneumococcal disease and accounts for 18 per cent of child deaths in developing countries, making it one of the two leading causes of death among young children.
“The pneumococcal vaccine can help us to dramatically reduce the number of children who die from pneumonia, a killer disease that is responsible for millions of deaths globally every year,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.
“By combining the power of immunisation with other measures like better nutrition and sanitation, we can change – and save – millions of children’s lives.”
The GAVI Alliance has committed to support the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in 19 developing countries within a year and, if it gets sufficient funding from its donors, plans to roll them out to more than 40 countries by 2015.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that the rapid roll-out of the pneumococcal vaccine shows how innovation and technology can be harnessed, at affordable prices, to save lives in the developing world.
“The payback, as measured by reduced childhood mortality, will be enormous,” said Chan.
GAVI needs an additional USD 3.7 billion over the next five years to continue its support for immunisation in the world’s poorest countries and introduce new and underused vaccines, including the pneumococcal vaccine and the rotavirus vaccine which tackles diarrhoea – the second biggest killer of children under five.
“Routine vaccination is one of the most cost-effective public health investments a government can make and we are counting on our donors to continue their strong backing for our life-saving mission,” said Helen Evans, interim CEO of the GAVI Alliance.
Since it was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2000, GAVI has prevented more than five million future deaths and helped protect 288 million children with new and underused vaccines.