Flu viruses are constantly mutating and changing their form...

An international group of scientists claim that they have isolated antibodies which may prevent the H5N1 bird flu virus from attacking human beings and they said that from their discovery treatments could be developed that work as a total flu vaccine. A flu vaccine like this could be what the world is waiting for and render a worldwide pandemic of the H5N1 bird flu virus completely impotent. The big concern of scientists and doctors around the world is that at present the H5N1 bird flu virus is not capable of being transmitted between humans and therefore it is pretty unlikely to spread rapidly but should this change things could get very serious.

The Tamiflu bird flu drug is very effective in beating the symptoms of the H5N1 bird flu virus however if this particular virus changed into a form that could easily be passed between human beings the Tamiflu drug may not still be as effective in destroying it. Flu viruses are constantly mutating and changing their form slightly however the scientists say that they have managed to locate and isolate antibodies which would mean that protection could be given with many different strains and types of the bird flu virus at the same time. In this case it appears that the scientists collected antibodies that were found in a few H5N1 bird flu survivors from Vietnam and used them to see if mice in a laboratory could make could use of them to stay healthy despite being infected with the H5N1 flu virus.

Professor Lanzavecchia speaking from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine based in Switzerland said that the mice had fought off the virus successfully and he was sure that these antibodies could now be used in human cases. It is likely that very soon human trials using these antibodies will start.