Influenza Vaccine News Update: 'Universal Vaccine' Against Flu Coming

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Flu season has never gotten out of style, but it's a trend everyone fears as it can cause various side effects that may lead to complications and death. Fortunately, scientists have now discovered and developed a "universal vaccine" that may provide protection against all sorts of influenza strains and may prevent pandemics in the future.

According to The Financial Express, a research from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has developed a vaccine design that does not need to match a virus to an antigen, which can further target different influenza virus strains.

Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger, lead researcher of the study, explained that current vaccines need to be matched to a particular virus before it can offer protection. This is the reason why the flu vaccine is given on a yearly basis.

DNA India adds that the researchers have conducted a series of experiments where they used a virus-like particle vaccine that were taken from different key surface protein subtypes of the influenza virus, namely hemagglutinin H1, H3, H5 and H7. These types have been chosen because they have caused the most numbers of outbreaks since 1918, like the flu outbreak from H1 & H3 and bird flu outbreaks from H5 &H7.

The results have been an astonishing 95 percent effectiveness on mice who received the cocktail vaccine as compared to only 5 percent who have not been injected. Furthermore, the vaccine has been discovered to be very durable, can last up to six months and works well even with aged mice.

With this research, complications brought about by influenza and flu may be stopped and prevented, Dr. Taubenberger tells Yahoo! News. Most flu viruses mutate rapidly that is why they can easily evade the body's immune system if it is only protected by outdated vaccines. The medical expert added that with the unexpected and remarkable traits of the cocktail vaccine, a promising protection against a wide variety of virus can assure the public that they can be safe from future virus outbreaks or pandemics.

Currently, the researchers are investigating further how to enhance the universal vaccine by testing the cocktail on ferrets. This animal is said to almost have the same body make-up of a human. If the test results show good results, it will then be safe to try the vaccine on humans, probably around next year.

The online copy of the study is available for public viewing on the Journal of the American Society for Microbiology.