KOREAN SCIENTISTS CLAIM DISCOVERY OF H1N1 VACCINE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.05.2009 13:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Researchers at a South Korean university say they
have discovered a candidate strain for an H1N1 vaccine, though it has
not yet been approved by health authorities in the United States or
the World Health Organization.

The strain is a genetically modified version of a live virus, and
could lead to a vaccine against H1N1 – commonly known as swine flu,
said Seo Sang-heui, a professor at Chungnam National University’s
College of Veterinary Medicine in South Korea.

"We created a candidate strain," Seo said Wednesday. The strain would
still have to undergo additional testing and tweaking, but Seo believes
it could be the right one to develop a vaccine.

He said the university is sending eight vials of the strain to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seo added that the CDC
had sent the university an original strain of the virus for testing.

CDC spokesman Dave Daigle said the agency has sent H1N1 strains to
roughly 10 labs around the world, but he had no information on South
Korea’s claims. He said the CDC would check out the university’s
research.

Researchers around the world are racing to come up with a vaccine
for the widespread virus, but the CDC and the WHO have said it could
take up to six months between the time a virus appears to the time
the vaccine is available to the public.

Earlier this month, WHO officials said candidate vaccine strains
would undergo quality-control measures and be evaluated in clinical
trials. If it meets certain criteria, a candidate vaccine would still
have to be approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration before
being available to patients in the United States, CNN reported.

Output is expected in September, after experiments are completed.