Emory to help evaluate bird flu vaccines

Emory University will help evaluate promising new vaccines against an “H5” bird flu virus thought to be a possible pandemic threat in the future, school officials said.

The Emory Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit will conduct a clinical trial of a new bird flu vaccine along with collaborators at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The enrollment and trial will last over the next six months to a year.

Scientists estimate a bird flu pandemic in the United States could result in 90 million Americans being affected by flu-related illnesses and 2 million domestic deaths. Vaccines for the various strains of bird flu could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars, officials said.

Several worldwide influenza outbreaks (“pandemics”) have occurred during the past century, including Spanish Flu of 1918, Asian Flu of 1957, and Hong Kong Flu of 1968. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 resulted in an estimated 60 million deaths worldwide.

“The upcoming bird flu vaccine trial is an important part of our U.S. national preparedness for a future influenza pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Mulligan, principal investigator of the Emory VTEU and executive director of the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center.

The VTEU network clinical trial will involve 500 healthy persons who have not been previously vaccinated against the H5 influenza strain, including 112 at the Emory clinical research site.

For more information about enrolling in this study, see www.hopeclinic.emory.edu or contact Eileen Osinski at 877-424-HOPE.