Flu Vaccine Bugs Out

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new type of influenza vaccine may make some people buggy.

Researchers are using insect cells instead of eggs to manufacture a new flu vaccine. Finding something else to base influenza vaccines on is important, they explain, because eggs require special manufacturing facilities, and it would be difficult to amp up production in the event of a pandemic flu.

Investigators from the University of Rochester in New York and elsewhere report positive results in an initial trial involving 460 adults. The participants were divided into three groups. One group received a sham vaccine, and the other two received different doses of the insect-based vaccine. The new vaccine, was developed using a genetic engineering technique that takes advantage of an antibody in the virus that makes red blood cells stick together. The shots were given during the 2004-2005 flu season.

Both doses of the vaccine were deemed safe and effective, leading investigators to conclude this new, insect based-vaccine could play a role in protecting the public against not only the typical influenza we see every year, but also the potentially deadly type that's capable of causing a pandemic flu.

They write, "The preliminary demonstration of protective efficacy in adults provides further support for the development of this promising approach for prevention of seasonal and pandemic influenza."

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007;297:1577-1583