Making Vaccine for New H7N9 Flu Virus Could Be a Challenge

Electron microscope image provided by CDC shows the H7N9 virus which can take on a variety of shapes.

Making vaccine for new H7N9 flu virus could be a challenge, experts sayby Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press, 12 April 2013

TORONTO - Making a vaccine to protect against the new H7N9 flu virus that has emerged in eastern China could prove to be problematic, influenza experts acknowledged Thursday.

There hasn't been enough time to produce even the seed strain to make H7N9 vaccine, let alone small batches of a prototype vaccine for testing. So researchers haven't had a chance to see how a vaccine against this new flu strain might work in people.

But clinical trials of vaccines made to protect against other viruses in the H7 family have shown the vaccines don't induce much of an immune response, even when people are given what would be considered very large doses.
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