The Situation With Vaccines For Bird Flu and Other Types of Flu
With everyone on the brink of panic regarding a bird flu
pandemic, many are wondering if a vaccine has been developed and
if not, why it has not. Vaccines have become a common and widely
accepted way of dealing with various viral infections.
Unfortunately, this is not yet a valid option for bird flu.
The primary reason an effective vaccine has not been developed
for the strain of bird flu causing so much concern is simply
lack of time. The process of vaccine development is long and
arduous. The virus must be researched on a molecular level in
order to create an effective vaccine. Although bird flu was
first identified in 1997, the real concern for the disease did
not come about until 2004, with the first real outbreak of the
virus. Therefore, less than two years has been available to
research and develop a vaccine. While vaccines have been
developed, they are still in trial phases and hope to be
complete soon.
To understand the other significant reasoning, you must first
understand a little about bird flu and the threat it carries. As
of yet, the virus is not a global, imminent concern. The reason
for this is that the virus is now only transmittable through
poultry and is not passed through human to human contact.
Although many people have died, it is still primarily an Asian
and European disease and has not reached pandemic proportions.
However, that is likely to change soon.
As time goes on, the virus is mutating and is expected to become
transmittable through human contact. When this happens, it will
very likely spread quickly and devastatingly throughout all
regions of the world.
Therefore, the second reason a vaccine has not yet been
developed is due to the mutation of the virus. As of yet, the
concern regarding the virus is not as drastic as it will be once
mutation is complete. If mutation occurs, a vaccine will be
essential to control the spread of the virus. However, a vaccine
can not be developed to avoid the new version of the virus until
it actually mutates. Any vaccine created before then will be
useless on the mutated form of the virus as the molecular basis
of the disease will change, altering the effectiveness of a
vaccine.
It is believed that much of the groundwork has been completed
for the mutated virus vaccine, but until mutation occurs, there
will be no way of knowing its effectiveness.