Steps toward a universal flu vaccine

Strategy for approving a universal flu vaccine

Steps toward universal coverage.

The health care reform debate of 1993-1994 revealed widespread recog nition that our nation’s health care system has significant problems. These problems did not end with the debate’s end in the 103d Congress. We therefore have no choice but to try again. Our new effort will reflect not only values and policy judgments but also political lessons from our recent experience. In this paper we argu...

First Steps toward a Globally Effective HIV/AIDS Vaccine

The enormous diversity of HIV-1 presents a formidable challenge for developing an effective AIDS vaccine. In this issue of Cell, Barouch et al. show that bioinformatically designed antigens, pieced together from multiple HIV immune epitopes, partially protect rhesus macaques from simian-human immunodeficiency virus infection. This "mosaic" approach holds promise for the development of broadly p...

Rationing the flu vaccine.

In October 2004, the CDC announced that Chiron Corporation, chief supplier of inactivated influenza vaccine for the United States for the 2004–2005 flu season, would not be providing the 50 million vaccinations it had promised—half of the anticipated 90–100 million doses from all sources projected for the flu season. The resultant shortage set off a firestorm of concern. Well known to health ca...

Progress toward a Universal H5N1 Vaccine: A Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara-Expressing Trivalent Hemagglutinin Vaccine

BACKGROUND The rapid evolution of new sublineages of H5N1 influenza poses the greatest challenge in control of H5N1 infection by currently existing vaccines. To overcome this, an MVAtor vector expressing three H5HA antigens A/Vietnam/1203/04, A/Indonesia/669/06 and A/Anhui/01/05 (MVAtor-tri-HA vector) was developed to elicit broad cross-protection against diverse clades by covering amino acid v...