Universal flu vaccine Strategy is Evolving

Why do you get a flu shot every year?

A STEP TOWARDS PEACE Universal flu vaccine Strategy is Evolving WHO universal flu vaccine swine influenza Spanish Flu seasonal influenza virus H5N1 H1N1 flu vaccine strategy CDC avian influenza   Doesn’t it bother you? On the other hand, aren’t you nervous? Sometimes I’m worried about ‘what if something go wrong because of the vaccine?’. In fact, researchers don’t want to bother you but they can’t help getting a flu shot. Because Influenza virus is evolving from moment to moment. So vaccine that you got last year had no effect. Even so, influenza virus is nothing to sneeze. According to CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), only in America 200,000 people go into a hospital for seasonal influenza virus. And 36,000 are died. So WHO(World Health Organization) made 3~4 vaccines that are predicted to be prevalent in advance on spring. So we need a universal flu vaccine.

Universal flu vaccine Strategy

For your understanding, watch this video. It is a good video to easily understand. As you already know, I’m a medical student. That antibody will protect you. But as previously stated, Virus mutation occurred frequently. Where is mutation? Surface proteins of Virus(Hemagglutinin, Neuraminidase) are changed. So we often know H1N1(Spanish Flu, swine influenza), H5N1(avian influenza). Often head of Hemagglutinin is a target of antibody.

  Hemagglutinin is composed of two, head and stem. Head mutates a lot, but stem does low. So if you make an antibody that attacks stem of influenza virus, you don’t need to get a vaccine every year. This fact was known in the early 2000s, but there is a problem. But in 2015, two studies which overcome the limitations in innovative ways were published.(professional information Later posting)

Dr Barney S Graham team in NIAID & Janssen

Peace is up to you :0 Good luck!