Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Chungnam National University claims to have developed foundation for H1N1 vaccine

According to CNN, scientists at Chungnam National University's College of Veterinary Medicine are reporting that they have discovered a candidate strain for the H1N1 virus, formerly known as "swine flu" or "pigfluenza." At right is Seo Sang-heui (서상희) from that team. Read the CNN article for the caveats and the wait-and-see stuff. 

As I explained at Brian's, this is not really some great technological breakthrough; making vaccines for virus strains that are floating around is a fairly mechanical process. Had Chungnam National University not done this — and we need testing to verify it and make sure it's useful — some other school, company, or institution would have done it eventually. 

Rather than a technological breakthrough, it is a public health breakthrough, because it means we may finally have a way to prevent the spread of the virus other than washing hands, quarantining, and being careful, a combination that isn't always effective. 

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2 comments:

  1. Chris in South KoreaTuesday, May 19, 2009 6:29:00 PM

    At least it's something positive for SK in world news... One of the first things in awhile :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. kushiboTuesday, May 19, 2009 6:34:00 PM

    Actually there's a fair amount of news in the international press about South Korea weathering the economic crisis better than most. And if you count Hyundai news in America, there are a lot of stories about Hyundai (and Kia) doing pretty well compared to American and European carmakers, and even most Japanese companies.

    Frankly, even I don't see this story as being a story with legs. This is no Snuppy-like story, and there is already a growing number of medical topics that get the attention of international media.

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