After a period of dominating the headlines, news on the bird flu front has been quiet for the last few months. However, this hasn’t signalled a corresponding hiatus in efforts to combat and deal with a future H5N1 outbreak.

Scientists and researchers have been diligently working away from the media glare, and it seems to have paid off. Antibodies isolated from the blood of Vietnamese survivors may simultaneously offer protection against several strains.  This is great news since no one can be sure how effective current vaccinations and drugs such as Tamiflu (designed for ‘traditional’, less virulent strains), would be against bird flu.

The antibodies have already proven effective in the lab and in mice, and the researchers are confident that they could be used in humans. The antibodies could be used to protect key workers, such as nurses and doctors, in countries where a bird flu epidemic strikes. The researchers say it could also be used as an emergency antidote in people who have already been infected with bird flu – if administered within a few days.

Human trials will hopefully happen soon; watch this space.

BBC online, Scientists find bird flu antibody, 29th May 2007