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European Team Develops Vaccine for Another Bird Flu Strain

October 28, 2005

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A European consortium has developed the first human vaccine for a virulent strain of bird flu that might someday develop the ability to jump from poultry to humans. Unfortunately, the vaccine is not for H5N1, which has killed millions of birds and more than 60 people in Asia.

In Britain, health experts warned of the potentially "catastrophic" effects of a bird flu pandemic. Routine operations could be cancelled and up to half of nurses may be off work because of the illness, a Lords committee was told.

The new vaccine is believed effective against H7N1, another highly lethal strain of bird flu, though generally regarded as less likely to jump to humans than H5N1.

Clinical trials of the new vaccine, called RD-3, will begin next spring, the European Union's executive commission said. It is the first vaccine not to use eggs in its production and was created using a process known as reverse genetics.

The vaccine was developed by a six-partner team from Britain, France and Italy, including the vaccines unit of drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis.

"This is part of the broad range of activities that the European Commission is undertaking to prepare ourselves for the eventuality of a human flu pandemic," said Philip Tod, the EU Commission's spokesman for health and food safety.

Bird flu is widely considered the single biggest threat to human health in the world today. The H5N1 virus has killed and forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and can on occasion be transmitted to people, often killing them.

A vaccine is the best way to stop the virus spreading if it mutates into a form that could pass easily between humans, but production of influenza vaccines is slow, and they do not work perfectly.

Pandemic Fears

The Lords committee heard a senior World Health Organization official warn that a bird flu pandemic could be as bad as the Spanish flu of 1918 which killed 50 million people.

The hearings were conducted as British flu fears spread almost as rapidly as a virus. A Michelin-starred restaurant took poultry and game birds off the menu after reports that two parrots had died in Essex.

The parrots were imported from South America but officials said they were continuing to pin down the source of the infection that killed them.

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