Uni scientists hope for 'lifetime' flu jab

10:43am Saturday 6th September 2008

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Oxford University scientists believe they have discovered a way to give people a flu shot potentially protecting them for life.

The jab - which doctors hope will do away with the need for yearly vaccinations - may even eventually make patients immune to human variations of bird fflu.

Currently flu shots can only be given once a year because the disease constantly changes into new strains.

Dr Sarah Gilbert, of the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, said: "This approach to influenza vaccination is unsatisfactory for use against seasonal influenza and of little use when new types of flu begin to infect humans from birds.

"It leaves manufacturers with a few months to produce the necessary stocks, the vaccine has to be administered to at-risk populations within a short time window, and those receiving the injection will all have to be vaccinated again the following year."

Scientists believe they will make the breakthrough by changing the focus of vaccines.

At the moment exisiting treatments produce antibodies in reaction to the proteins on the surface of the virus. But it is these proteins that change over time.

There are internal proteins that do not change and so if the vaccine reacts to those, it would protect a patient against many different strains, she said.

Dr Gilbert added: "By targeting the internal proteins of the virus, we can come up with a universal flu jab. The same vaccine would work against all seasonal flu and protect against bird flu.

"Children would be protected, we'd see economic benefits through reduced sickness in people of working age, and the elderly, who respond less well to vaccination, would be better off through lack of exposure to flu."

Twelve volunteers are currently undergoing tests. If those are successful further testing will be needed before it can be given to doctors.

Up to 500,000 people die every year from flu epidemics, according to the World Health Organisation, while between 3m and 5m people suffer severe illness.

There have been four flu pandemics in the 20th century, with the 1918 pandemic causing an estimated 40m to 50m deaths worldwide.

The World Health Organisation also states that there have been 385 cases of the H5N1 avian influenza being transmitted from birds to humans since 2003, resulting in 243 deaths.