After taking years of hard work and thorough research, researchers are claiming that they are closer to developing a universal, and even permanent, flu vaccine.
Tech Times reported that two separate studies were able to zero in on a stable part of the continuously mutating virus strain that, if targeted by the vaccine, could mean a more effective immunization and protection against a wider spectrum of influenza viruses. The studies were published in Science journal and Nature Medicine.
Should these studies succeed, there is the possibility that a need for yearly flu shots will be eliminated.
“We can do better,” Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology from the University of Oxford, UK, told BBC. “The vaccines we use for flu are really using decades-old technology. There’s nothing else we vaccinate against every year.”
“Nothing really very innovative was done with flu for a while,” Gilbert added.
Influenza vaccines need to be administered yearly because they target parts of the flu virus which mutate at a very high rate. As the viruses mutate, the vaccine also needs to be reformulated and the immune system needs to be given another shot to re-educate it. This process is costly, and reaching $2 billion to $4 billion each year.
Although this strategy has been effective, it was never foolproof. Efficiency rates lower for ages over 65, and at times the predictions regarding seasonal flu virus strains are wrong, making vaccines underperform.
However, researchers have found stable parts of the virus strain and are focusing their work on it with the target of making a universal flu shot.
"It's a very good stepping stone. Ultimately, the hope is to get a vaccine that will cover a pandemic virus," Prof John Oxford, a flu expert at the University of London, told BBC.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that every season, flu causes millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. Although vaccination is the best way to protect someone from flu, it has to be administered weeks before the flu season arrives, every year.
With researchers getting closer to developing a universal vaccine, the general public has a better fighting chance against the sickness. And if this new vaccine achieves permanent effectiveness, it will be even better. Researchers are working on that.
“You’d have to get [vaccinated] regularly, but not every year,” Gilbert said. “I think if we got to the point where you needed to vaccinate every 5 years, we’d be doing very well.”
