flu vaccine kill all strains

Flu vaccine to kill all strains

English scientists say they have made strides toward the development of a so-called "universal" vaccine to influenza - one that protects against all strains of the potentially deadly illness and which doesn't need to be custom-made each time another flu season rolls around.
In a recent experiment, scientists at Oxford University tested a universal vaccine on 11 healthy volunteers, comparing their risk for infection with that of 11 healthy volunteers who had not been vaccinated, the Guardian reported.
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.
The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world.
Developed by a team led by Dr Sarah Gilbert at Oxford's Jenner Institute, the vaccine targets proteins inside the flu virus that are common across all strains, instead of those that sit on the virus's external coat, which are liable to mutate.