Every year in February, the WHO reports which new strains are the best candidates for an epidemic. Sometimes they don't change, but sometimes they all change.
Do these seasonal vaccines have certain disadvantages?
Yes, the disadvantages are enormous. Currently, the preparation of classical vaccines is very expensive; you need huge numbers of fertilized chicken eggs, a whole infrastructure.
Secondly, we sometimes miss the strain that becomes active. Research has shown that when all the data are taken together, the prediction rate is about 80 to 90 percent. But there are examples where large vaccination programs have taken place where the wrong strain was targeted. And the great disadvantage is that if a pandemic arrives, we will not be prepared.
Why do researchers think that a pandemic could be likely?
All the information that we have seems to indicate that for the 1918 flu—the mother of all the pandemics, which killed 50 million people—could have been caused by a virus strain from birds. Now we know that influenza is common among all kinds of birds, but it could also come from another animal. There is the possibility that the bird flu will adapt itself for human-to-human transmission. This has not happened, but there have been some 250 people killed by the H5 strain in different areas of South Asia. There is a larger than 50 percent mortality if humans are infected. If you have 500 million of these viruses, you have a larger probability that among these viruses there is one or two mutants that have the required combination for spreading among humans. This is justifiably a great danger.
When transmission takes place between birds, they don't have an equivalent immune response like humans. Consequently, the virus doesn't change. With humans you will not have the same conservation of the virus. On the contrary, I'm strongly convinced that if in Hong Kong, or somewhere else, a pandemic started to develop, it will quickly spread throughout the world, but there will be no immune defenses because nobody had been previously exposed.
So your solution is a universal vaccine.
You need a vaccine that is not invalidated by drift and shift. We've researched this via many years and PhDs. At the end of the 1980s and during the early 1990s we started thinking that a new approach that proved successful might lead to a universal vaccine.
If you have a pathogen—a virus—that infects man, most people will survive. The recovered person now has convalescence serum—that is, a serum that contains antibodies against the pathogen. With the antibodies we look for which viral proteins are their targets. If we identify these, we can create a vaccine, which targets these proteins. But in the case of drift, you need another strategy.
We found that besides the large HA (hemagglutinin) and NA (neuraminidase) there is a small protein, M2e, which does occur on the virus in very small quantities. So people didn't view it as important, but for us it was very important because it does not elicit anti-M2e in the majority of recovering people.
In other words, the virus's M2e does not naturally set off an immune response in humans. How do you get the immune system to target that small protein, then?
We have made it highly immunogenic by implanting it on a viruslike particle, so that if we present this in this way to the immune system, it is very immunogenic. M2e is only slightly present on the virus, but in the lung epithelium cells where the virus ends up and starts multiplying, in the invaded cells, M2e becomes abundant. The target is not the virus, but the virus-infected cell. If you, at an early stage, can kill off these cells, than you will counteract the infection.
Why doesn't the virus's M2e gene vary the way the HA and NA genes do?
In part, because of the absence of immune selection, which plays a role in the introduction of drift, so there are not many antibodies. But there is also the fact that M1 and M2 [to which M2e is attached] are coded by two overlapping genes. M1 has very important functions at several levels, which strongly restricts the variability of both M1 and M2. Any mutations in them will impede the virus from reproducing.
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Add CommentHistorical Facts About Influenza:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe last influenza pandemic occurred nearly 100 years ago, and resulted in about 50 million deaths worldwide. Those who survived have allowed others to obtain antibodies from them to develop other antibodies for future viral outbreaks that may occur. This last influenza pandemic also allowed others to obtain this virus from those who died as a result to facilitate effective treatments and vaccines for viral outbreaks that may happen in the future as well.
With influenza, it is understood that the disease influenza is a disease caused by a RNA virus that can infect both mammals and birds. In fact, this particular virus can mutate to where it can be shared between the two life forms and multiply within each one of them. Unlike coryza, influenza expresses symptoms more severely, and usually lasts two weeks until one recovers who has the flu. Influenza, however, poses a danger to some with compromised immune systems, such as the chronically ill. In cases such as this, influenza can in fact progress to deadly pneumonia. Symptoms of influenza usually start to express themselves symptomatically 36 hours after being infected with the virus. Over 10 percent of the population are infected with this virus every year- resulting in about 200,000 hospitalizations and nearly 40,000 deaths.
The flu vaccination contains three viral strains of suspected viruses for flu outbreaks during a particular winter season, as determined by the World Health Organization, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, and other organizations. Unfortunately, the influenza vaccine administered last flu season was largely ineffective due to unsuspected strains of the virus infecting others, although about 140 million doses of this vaccine were administered. After giving the vaccination dose to one, it takes about 10 days for that person to build up an immunity for the disease of influenza.
The influenza season peaks between the months of January and March. The vaccine for this influenza season is manufactured by 6 different companies. Yet the strains chosen are speculated influenza viruses, as this does not eliminate the chance of a new and dominant influenza viral strain that possibly could cause a pandemic. It takes manufacturers about 6 months to make and formulate the influenza vaccination. There is a vaccine for this illness that is produced every year according to which type of virus may be prevalent during a particular flu season. The vaccination is recommended to be administered to those who are at high risk, such as the chronically ill. Also, it is recommended that those under 18 years of age get the vaccine, as well as those people over the age of 50. Furthermore, those people who regularly take aspirin should receive the vaccine, as the influenza disease can become a catalyst for Reye’s Syndrome. Pregnant women should receive the vaccine as well- as there are many other vaccines available to fortunately prevent other diseases, perhaps.
Vaccines add to the toxic overload of the body, and mercury (Thimerosol) increases vulnerability.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere is a quote (complements of Mark Sircus of the International Medical Veritas Association IMVA) from Dr. Eleanor McBean who lived through the 1918 influenza epidemic and testified, "As far as I could find out, the flu hit only the vaccinated. Those who had refused the shots escaped the flu. My family had refused all the vaccinations so we remained well all the time. There was seven times more disease among the vaccinated soldiers than among the unvaccinated civilians, and the diseases were those they had been vaccinated against."
Tamiflu is not a cure and can have dangerous psychiatric side effects resulting in suicide or serious injury or death while trying to flee or escape an imaginary danger. It offers false hope and is a cash cow for drug companies. I put all vaccines in the same category. Most drugs only treat symptoms and with dangerous side effects.
Personal things you can do. First of all stay well hydrated by drinking lots of pure water. According to Mark Sircus http://www.naturalallopathic.com our most potent natural weapons against any virus, microbe, fungi, yeast, etc. including influenza are: Transdermally(via the skin) applied Magnesium Chloride (ancientminerals.com has the purest form), Iodine (Nascent Iodine, Lugol's, 7% solution or the stuff off the shelf), and Sodium Bicarbonate. The skin is the largest organ of the body and absorbs what it needs. I recommend Mark's website and books to understand how these inexpensive minerals are so powerful and important to maintaining health.
In addition, Jim Humble discovered the secret of turning Stabilized Oxygen (usually sold in stores as a 3.5% solution of Sodium Chlorite, NaClO2) into the most potent pathogen killer known to man, Chlorine Dioxide, ClO2. It destroys all harmful viruses, microbes, fungi, and yeast in the body (Malaria, influenza, Aids, etc.) while leaving helpful organisms alone. He starts with 15 drops of a 28% solution of Sodium Chlorite (MMS, Miracle Mineral Supplement,Google it) to which he adds 1/2 teaspoon of either fresh lemon or lime juice, or vinnegar (5% acid content). Wait 3 minutes. This creates about 3 milligrams of Chlorine Dioxide when 4 ounces of pure apple juice is added (or just use water). You drink this and it continues to generate chlorine dioxide for the next 12 hours in the body. It oxidizes any pathogen it contacts by accepting 5 electrons of charge, leaving a salt and water residual. Totally safe.