FDA to Probe for New Flu Vaccine

February 21, 2008

(Long Island, N.Y.) The Food and Drug Administration have called on a panel of flu specialists all over the country for their annual meeting in an effort to keep pace with the ever dynamic influenza virus by forecasting which strain of the deadly virus will likely strike next winter and allow scientists to develop new vaccines against the disease ahead of time.

This year, the FDA made a wrong prediction of which strains would attack which resulted with researchers concocting a vaccine with only a 40% success rate among patients with influenza in the US. The Bureau hopes to avoid that same mistake for next winter which is the reason for the earlier than usual assembly. The most damaging type of strain currently affecting Americans nationwide is the Brisbane /10 detected only after the vaccines were made last year.

Dr. Nancy Cox, CDC’s flu director said, “We didn’t have enough information to know that this was going to be a serious player, we thought we were going to have a pretty mild season until a few weeks ago.”

Influenza Virus has many variations but the most troublesome to humans is Influenza Virus A which has been classified by scientists as the type with the most potent pathogens for humans and causes the most brutal disease. It is further classified from the viral surface proteins it posses as hemagglutinin (HA or H) and neuraminidase (NA or N). Currently there are 16 identified subtypes of H while nine N subtypes of influenza A virus have been identified. Early in the 20th century, Influenza virus killed over 40 million people when a pandemic called “Spanish Flu” hit majority of the populated cities worldwide.

“Influenza viruses are changing all the time. We’re trying to have a window which allows us enough time to manufacture a vaccine. We can’t just turn on a dime,” said Dr. Norman Baylor, FDA’s chief of vaccine review.

Posted by News LI Editor · Edited by Brianna - Filed Under Health