![]() In a lab at NIH's Vaccine Research Center, "we think taking the head off will solve the problem," Graham said. Scientists are trying different tricks to spur production of those antibodies. Even better, "these antibodies were much broader than anything we've seen," capable of blocking multiple subtypes of flu, said Scripps' Wilson. (Associated Press)Ī turning point toward better vaccines was a 2009 discovery that, sometimes, people make a small number of antibodies that instead target spots on the hemagglutinin stem that don't mutate. During the influenza epidemic, masks were required for all passengers. In this 1918-1919 photo from the Library of Congress, a conductor checks to see if potential passengers are wearing masks in Seattle, Wash. Its flower-like head attracts the immune system, which produces infection-blocking antibodies if the top is similar enough to a previous infection or that year's vaccination.īut that head also is where mutations pile up. Think of hemagglutinin as a miniature broccoli stalk. This winter H3N2, a descendent of the 1968 pandemic, is causing most of the misery. That virulent 1918 virus was the H1N1 subtype milder H1N1 strains still circulate. With 18 hemagglutinin varieties and 11 types of neuraminidase - most carried by birds - there are lots of potential combinations. They also form the names of influenza A viruses, the most dangerous flu family. Afterward, the "N" helps the virus spread. The "H" allows flu to latch onto respiratory cells and infect them. The new vaccine quest starts with two proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, that coat flu's surface. Barney Graham, deputy director of NIH's Vaccine Research Center. "This 100-year timeline of information about how the virus adapted to us and how we adapt to the new viruses, it teaches us that we can't keep designing vaccines based on the past," said Dr. Taubenberger's research shows the family tree, each subsequent pandemic a result of flu viruses carried by birds or pigs mixing with 1918 flu genes. Three more flu pandemics have struck since, in 1957, 19, spreading widely but nowhere near as deadly. Sick with the flu? Avoid the hospital and get some rest, say health officials.Get your flu shots, health officials urge amid concerns about bad season.Labs around the country are hunting for a super-shot that could eliminate the annual fall vaccination in favour of one every five years or 10 years, or maybe, eventually, a childhood immunization that could last for life. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. A vaccine that is going to protect you against essentially all, or most, strains of flu," said Dr. "We have to do better and by better, we mean a universal flu vaccine. A vaccine that is going to protect you against essentially all, or most, strains of flu, - Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health in the U.S. We have to do better and by better, we mean a universal flu vaccine. There's no way to predict what strain of the shape-shifting flu virus could trigger another pandemic or, given modern medical tools, how bad it might be.īut researchers hope they're finally closing in on stronger flu shots, ways to boost much-needed protection against ordinary winter influenza and guard against future pandemics at the same time. Stacked bodies outnumbered coffins.Ī century after one of history's most catastrophic disease outbreaks, scientists are rethinking how to guard against another super-flu like the 1918 influenza that killed tens of millions as it swept the globe. Faces turned blue as patients coughed up blood. Some victims felt fine in the morning and were dead by night. ![]()
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