Swine Flu Vaccines
Vaccines and swine flu
Swine flu vaccine has just been developed. It is currently been distributed to the more vulnerable members of the public.
Vaccines work in a completely different way to antiviral medications. A vaccine works by inducing immunity against whatever strain of flu is circulating. It uses the body’s natural infection fighting mechanisms to control the spread of viruses within the body.
How a vaccine is made
Producing a vaccine for the H1N1 strain of swine flu involves dismantling the virus and isolating the genes responsible for the outer viral coat. These genes are then spliced into the harmless PR8 virus and this recombined virus is injected into a fertilized hens egg.
After incubating the eggs for days, scientists then extract the fluid from the eggs, isolate the virus, fragment them and then use the fragments to create a vaccine.
It can take up to a month to create a vaccine in a laboratory but industrial production can take up to six months.
Are vaccines safe?
It’s true that vaccines we made up of fragments of viruses. But influenza vaccines are extremely safe. The fragments that are used in vaccines are inactive and are in no way dangerous.
Is there going to be enough vaccines?
Work has been completed to mass produce a vaccine for swine flu. There are problems related to this however, due to the continual need for a vaccine for the regular seasonal flu. Both vaccines can’t be produced at the same maximal scale of production. So governments and industry have to make a very important decision on which vaccines they are going to focus on.
Its very likely that both vaccines will be produced together to ensure that they are not left exposed. The richer governments will very likely buy extra vaccines to cover any possible shortfall.