I thought this news deserved its own thread. I appologize if someone has posted this elsewhere. I received this e-mail article from CIDRAP this evening:
“WHO changes H5N1 strains for pandemic vaccines, raising concern over virus evolution The World Health Organization (WHO) today changed the H5N1 avian influenza strains recommended for candidate vaccines for the first time since 2004, causing some experts to question how far the virus has evolved.” http://tinyurl.com/q5xc8
I kind of ignored WHO’s news release on this today, thinking it wasn’t a big deal, but after reading the CIDRAP article, it raised my concern level. Specifically,
“Report raises alarm, offers opportunities Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, a leading pandemic preparedness expert, said recognition of the three subclades demonstrates how diverse the virus is and how dynamically it is evolving. He said the WHO notice is more important for the questions it raises than for the vaccine guidance it contains. “Does that mean H5N1 is closer to becoming an agent that can readily transmit human-to-human? That’s the billion dollar question,” he told CIDRAP News.”
“Many experts who follow the ongoing analysis of the H5N1 virus sequences are alarmed at how fast the virus is evolving into an increasingly more complex network of clades and subclades, Osterholm said”
“Paul Targonski, MD, PhD, a genetics epidemiology expert who works in vaccine research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said that the WHO’s release of the subclade strains is an important, progressive development in vaccine research. What’s new for vaccine researchers is seeing the smaller differences between the H5N1 virus clades, he told CIDRAP News.”
“Though the information makes the development of an H5N1 vaccine more complex, it also provides good information for designing more targeted and effective vaccines, Targonski said.”
Oops, sorry, that was me. Don’t know what happened to my handle.
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“Many experts who follow the ongoing analysis of the H5N1 virus sequences are alarmed at how fast the virus is evolving into an increasingly more complex network of clades and subclades, Osterholm said” ‘’‘
which experts ? Hasn’t H5N1 evolotion slowed down a lot since 2004
with almost no reassortments since then and more developing like
normal flu ? See the Qinghai-strain : very few changes.
This was quite different in the earlier days of H5N1.
“Paul Targonski, MD, PhD, a genetics epidemiology expert who works in vaccine research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said that the WHO’s release of the subclade strains is an important, progressive development in vaccine research. What’s new for vaccine researchers is seeing the smaller differences between the H5N1 virus clades, he told CIDRAP News.”
so, he said “smaller differences”. I don’t see why Osterholm
included this to support his argument of fast H5N1-evolution.
Dr. Osterholm asks the question: “Does that mean H5N1 is closer to becoming an agent that can readily transmit human-to-human?”
But doesn’t answer it. I think that’s because it was rhetorical.
I wish I did not have to play the game of what did he mean by that?
Closed to maintain Forum speed.