Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Veterinary Vaccines for Humans

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reports on the possibility of using bird flu vaccine intended for domestic chickens on human beings:

Presumably, if the A(H5N1) avian flu turns into a pandemic, modern medicine will show more common sense. But at the moment, the common-sense response — an avian flu vaccine for humans — is in very short supply. A few million doses exist, earmarked for clinical trials and protection of the vaccine workers needed to make more.
Meanwhile, billions of doses, using crude versions of the same technology, exist for chickens. In desperation, could chicken vaccine be used on humans?
Several experts asked about it were aghast at the idea.


The article goes on to discuss nasty impurites, nastier adjuvants, and the low dosage and limited protection of bird vaccines compared to human vaccines.

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