Seasonal flu shot may soon be thing of the past
Updated Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:58pm AEDT
Seasonal flu shot may soon be thing of the past - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
* Map: Canberra 2600
A vaccine developed in Canberra to protect against all strains of influenza will be trialed in Indonesia.
Since the first outbreak of swine flu in the early 1980s, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have been working overtime to develop such a vaccine.
Now the product is ready to trial and a Canberra vaccine company has secured its first customers.
Professor Tim Hirst from Gamma Vaccines says Indonesia is a perfect candidate for the trial.
"We decided that Indonesia, being one of the closest countries, it has a very large population which would be devastated by a new pandemic influenza if it were to occur, it would be very serious," he said.
ANU immunologist Professor Arno Mullbacher spent decades working on the vaccine and is also pleased with the choice of trial nation.
"I always wanted some of my work fulfilled by providing a third world country with a vaccine which they could otherwise never obtain," he said.
He says if successful, the vaccine has the potential to replace the seasonal flu jab.
"In the case of influenza, that provides now the possibility that we have a universal flu vaccine," he said.
"We don't need to go every year to the doctor to get a new jab, one immunisation should last for a very long time, similar to polio or yellow fever vaccines."
Tags: diseases-and-disorders, medical-research, vaccines-and-immunity, act, canberra-2600
First posted Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:06pm AEDT
Seasonal flu shot may soon be thing of the past
Linear Mode
