Korean veterinary scientists said yesterday that they have succeeded in developing a human vaccine against the A(H1N1) influenza virus that has alarmed the world.
They say the vaccine against the virus, which was initially called swine flu, is the first in the world and it should be available to humans in four months. A research team led by Suh Sang-hee, professor of veterinary science at Chungnam National University, said that through genetic recombination of genes extracted from the standard H1N1 virus they have developed a vaccine that is non-infective and can be mass produced.
The breakthrough came only 11 days after the team received samples of the virus from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and began research, according to the university. It generally takes around three months for a vaccine to be developed.
Suh is an established figure in international influenza research, having produced a vaccine against the highly pathogenic avian flu strain last October. He was the first in the world to identify the human cause of the avian flu influenza, which claimed six lives in Hong Kong in 1997. Also, he is the only scientist in Korea who has won official approval from the U.S. CDC, enabling him to obtain highly virulent flu virus samples for research whenever necessary. He said he is willing to provide the vaccine to Korean and world health authorities as well as pharmaceutical firms free of charge. The U.S. CDC has already made such a request.
“Although the new strain of influenza is wreaking havoc on human health across the globe, mass production and injection of the vaccine could minimize its impact,” he said in a media interview. “We need to launch mass production of the vaccine before it becomes too late.”
Since the vaccine appears not to be harmful to human health, it will go through a simple safety test before being commercialized by pharmaceutical firms, Suh added. Jun Byung-yool, a senior official of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press briefing that he “has no words to say at this moment, since the center hasn’t verified the research outcome.”
Meanwhile, the disease control center said yesterday it had identified a 22-year-old Vietnamese female as a presumed victim of A(H1N1) on Sunday. She is currently being tested after being isolated in a facility at Incheon International Airport.
After departing from Seattle in the United States, she was transferring to a flight to Vietnam via Incheon. Quarantine control at the airport detected that she had a fever. The center said it will track 73 Koreans and 28 foreigners who took the same flight with her.
view of Chungnam U and Deajeon
By Seo Ji-eun
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2905022
