Bird flu vaccine trial against potential pandemic strain begins

Bird flu vaccine trial against potential pandemic strain beginsJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleFergus WalshMedical editorBBCClare Howard was one of the first people to be vaccinated against the bird flu strainThe first volunteers in the UK have been immunised with a vaccine to protect against a potential bird flu pandemic.The vaccine targets the H5N1 flu strain which has caused devastating infections in bird populations worldwide and has spread to some mammals.The threat to humans is currently low, says the UK Health Protection Agency, with almost all human cases linked to close contact with infected animals.The vaccine uses the same mRNA technology used in current Covid jabs, with scientists saying this enables the vaccine to be created quickly and at scale, in the event of a pandemic.The trial is hoping to recruit people who work in the poultry industry or are over the age of 65 - the two most at-risk groups.Clare Howard, from Hampshire, who has kept chickens for years, was one of the first volunteers to receive the vaccine on this new H5N1 trial, at a clinic in Southampton. "It was quite easy and it could be something that ultimately proves incredibly important," she said.The large-scale trial will involve 4,000 volunteers with three-quarters recruited at 26 sites in England and Scotland, and the rest in the United States.Dr Rebecca Clark, the trial's national co-ordinating investigator, based at Layton Medical Centre, Blackpool, said the strain was "evolving and spreading across animal species"."Although it does not yet move easily between humans, we have to treat human-to-human transmission as a real possibility," she said."This trial is our proactive attempt to shield against that possibility, and any future pandemic that could emerge from it."There have been 116 confirmed human cases around the world since 2024, almost all linked to close contact with infected animals.Clare is vaccinated against the H5N1...