Britain's First Swine-flu Trials Under Way

(Aug. 22, 2009) — Britain’s first swine flu vaccine trials, led by the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, are taking place at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Dr Iain Stephenson, a consultant in infectious diseases at the hospital and clinical senior lecturer at the University, has been carrying out research into swine flu and has published academic papers on the subject.

Now he is working with 175 volunteers, aged 18-50, as part of research to develop a vaccine against the virus.

The volunteers were recruited in the last week of July ago and blood samples are now being taken to detect how much immunity the drug gives. Earlier research by Dr Stephenson and colleagues already established that two doses of the vaccine would be needed to build up immunity.

Results from the trials are expected in September

Science Daily Article

Good to see we are actually trialling the vaccine here in the UK, my only question is can solid results be collected by September? Seems a very short amount of time to me to get a definitive answer to whether or not this is safe, also the long term problems that could come from taking it cant be assessed.