The world does not
yet have an effective vaccine against the swine flu virus. The
government at this time has its eye on two prospects that could
possibly yield a vaccine. It is hoped that the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention can have a final version ready to deliver to
pharmaceutical companies around the world soon, to help them begin
manufacturing vaccines for use in hospitals.
The government has allocated funds now for conducting safety tests on
the first vaccine that come out. The first doses available are expected
to be administered to healthcare professionals who in the line of their
work are routinely exposed to swine flu. Researchers for the CDC have
shared with the public, information about the genetic makeup of the
swine flu virus and they have expressed their concerns that the virus
could have been in circulation in pigs for years. New research is
expected to allow the creation of a vaccine that can fight the swine
flu virus today and help keep
the virus from mutating in the future.
To gain the knowledge that will help keeping in the swine flu virus
from mutating in the future, scientists need to know where the virus
came from in the past. The H1N1 virus , ever since it made the transfer
from swine to humans a
month ago, has infected 11,000 people, and
killed over 100 in 42 countries. Scientists are looking for specific
insights into the genetic change the virus appears to have made last
month that allows it to be so successful at surviving in humans.
These statistics of cases of the swine flu however only go by what is
reported; it is estimated that for every case that is known about, that
could be 20 more of people who silently suffer.
The CDC's most promising prospects in swine flu vaccines contain a
mixture of genes from the current swine flu virus and also contain
parts of other viruses that allow for better growth in the laboratory
environment. If final testing turns out to be promising and functional,
production could begin this very summer for use in the population.
The thing that makes influenza such a tricky disease to produce a
vaccine for is, that the virus involved is especially adept at rapidly
adapting to new circumstances. While the biological makeup of birds
provides the most natural habitat for influenza viruses, they have for
long found a way to survive in mammals, pigs mainly, at least since
1847.
As adept at adaptation that the virus is, samples of the virus
collected from dozens of patients in today's swine flu epidemic, show a
remarkable similarity. This is good news as it shows that the virus now
presents a static target to a vaccine, not a moving
target.
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