There has been quite a bit of talk lately both in the press and the blogosphere about what can be done to fight bird flu. Early this week there were a number of stories claiming that bird flu could be stopped if it were detected early enough and local authorities responded immediately. The talk revolved around computer simulated models of bird flu. Randall Parker offers a great review of the discussion at FuturePundit, and Effect Measure argues that the idea that bird flu could be stopped is a nothing but a mirage.
A second set of stories came out today, reporting advances in vaccine development. The New York Times and the Washington Post, for example, ran articles on this story today. From the NYT:
The new vaccine for avian flu is derived from a strain that Dr. Robert G. Webster, an internationally known influenza expert, helped isolate from a human case in Vietnam. Dr. Webster is on the faculty of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, and his work is supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Because the A(H5N1) strain of avian flu is lethal for chickens and so could not be grown in eggs, Dr. Webster had to use a technique known as reverse genetics to remove the gene that made the virus deadly. This altered virus was used by Sanofi-Pasteur, a French vaccine company, to produce the vaccine in chicken eggs.
Effect Measure offers the best coverage of the story. Many problems remain with this experimental vaccine: more extensive clinical trials are needed; currently there is not enough production capacity; the virus can mutate and make the vaccine ineffective. Still, a (partially) effective vaccine is surely a positive development.