Hungarian Company Develops Bird Flu Vaccine, page 1

Researcher from a Hungarian company, Omnivest, have developed a vaccine against the current strain of H5N1 bird flu virus. However, the vaccine is only intended for use on people working in close proximity to the birds. It is not intended to shield against a mutated form of the virus.

Hungarian researchers find H5N1 bird flu vaccine for humans

Hungarian researchers have devised a vaccine for humans against the current form of the H5N1 bird flu virus, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said Tuesday.

The vaccine was developed by the Hungarian company Omnivest and has been approved by the country's pharmaceutical authorities, he told a press conference at the firm's laboratories at Bilsborosjeno, near Budapest.

Showing journalists a vial of the vaccine, Gyurcsany said it "contains six micrograms (of an active agent), enough for one person to be immunised against the H5N1 virus."

The vaccine would be used to protect people working in close proximity to diseased birds, he said.

"This is a product manufactured from an aluminium and phosphate viral gel, for which nobody else at the moment has the (production) technology," he added.

"If the virus were to spread to breeding farms, which (in Hungary) is not the case, we will have to vaccinate 20,000 people, veterinary doctors, farmers, those who are exposed to poultry on a daily basis," Gyurcsany said.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Although this isn't a vaccine against the potentialy pandemic, mutated version of the virus, it is a step in the right direction. If people who are at risk of contracting the disease from birds are given this vaccine, the risk of the virus mutating into the strain that can easily pass from person to person also drops.