Medical Center Leads Test of Bird Flu Vaccine
Researchers at the Medical Center are at the forefront of the fight against a deadly virus that many scientists fear could spark a worldwide flu pandemic.
John Treanor, professor of medicine and director of Rochester's vaccine and treatment evaluation unit, last spring led a three-site study of a vaccine against the most virulent form of the disease known as bird flu, which has claimed the lives of three out of four people in Southeast Asia who have been infected with it.
The study—with 150 volunteers at Rochester and an additional 300 test subjects at the University of Maryland and UCLA—evaluated the effectiveness of an experimental vaccine to prevent infection.
“The fear is that a bird flu virus that acquired the ability to go from person to person would spread around the globe very quickly.”
—Treanor
"Bird flu is like an extreme example of a new strain of flu," Treanor says. "The components of the flu vaccine change every year depending on what strains are circulating, and this vaccine is no different. Based on what we know about other flu vaccines, and what it takes to prevent the flu, we think that using the same type of vaccine, and tailoring it to bird flu, should protect people."
Preliminary results released in August were promising; the vaccine produced an immune response that neutralized the virus in 113 of the study's participants.
As of last summer, the virus showed little ability to be transmitted from person to person. Since most people have never been exposed to bird flu, they have no immunity to it, and doctors fear the lethal virus could then spread quickly.
"Unlike a typical flu virus, which most people have some immunity against, people have no defense against bird flu," says Treanor. "The fear is that a bird flu virus that acquired the ability to go from person to person would spread around the globe very quickly."
