Sunday, September 13, 2009

H1N1 vaccine a one-shot deal

Good news on the public health front: Testing has been done for the H1N1 vaccine and it appears that, for healthy adults, only one dose will be needed:
That means 97 percent of the people had an immune response that suggests they could fight off swine flu. [Vaccine maker CSL Biotherapies] also tried the double dose that many people thought would be necessary in another 120 volunteers. The low dose actually worked a bit better — a relief for manufacturers, since the virus that produces the vaccine has been slow to grow in the lab.
Of course, H1N1 infections have peaked in some areas, so this is coming a bit late, but it will be helpful in other areas, especially if immunity kicks in earlier (because of the one-time-only dosage) than with other vaccines. It may be too late, of course, for the 2500 believed to have been infected at Washington State University in Seattle Pullman since school began in late August.

Meanwhile, South Korea is reporting its sixth death from swine flu, a sixty-seven-year-old man. And I have not found out if Chungnam National University's efforts to produce the H1N1 vaccine have been part of these dosages which are finally being released to the public.

Sphere: Related Content

2 comments:

  1. HLMonday, September 14, 2009 10:54:00 PM

    No major comments on the rest of the content, but Washington State University is in Pullman, Washington, about a five hours' drive east of Seattle.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kushiboTuesday, September 15, 2009 3:07:00 AM

    Duly noted, thanks. I had gleaned Seattle from the CNN dateline, which was sloppy of me.

    I see Pullman is waaaaaay over on the other end of the state, practically in Idaho.

    I should know this because the University of Hawaii Warriors, the entire state of Hawaii's proxy for a pro football team since there's no NFL franchise out here in the middle of the ocean, defeated the Washington State Cougars on Saturday, 38-20, in what appears to have been a rousing match.

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts, but please be kind and respectful. My mom reads this blog.