No pain as Japan develops nasal spray bird flu vaccine

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Japanese scientists have developed a nasal spray bird flu vaccine — and this is the trumpeted benefit:

The nasal spray could make it easier to vaccinate people in developing countries with limited medical resources, which have borne the brunt of avian influenza since an outbreak in 2003.

Here’s the “minor” side-benefit:

Unlike current vaccines, the nasal spray is also seen as effective in mutations of the H5N1 virus — meaning it could protect against a potential global pandemic.

The spray counters potential mutations because its antibodies work differently.

The new method “stimulates mucous membranes instead of stimulating cells of the immune system, triggering secreting antibodies on the surface of the mucous membranes,” Hasegawa said.

At any rate, it’s odd that we produce so few nasal-spray vaccines. When I read Ken Alibek’s Biohazard a few years ago — billed as “The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World, Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It” — I was surprised to learn that the Soviet researchers walked through an aerosol spray of vaccine on the way into work every day.

Why are we poking millions of children with millions of needles again?

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