Elena Govorkova and colleagues at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, have developed a vaccine against the potential lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza. The vaccine protects, it seems, without triggering antibody production as is normally the case.
While lab tests show the vaccine to be effective, there is a problem with this preliminary study. It was not carried out on humans, so we shall not know whether it would be of any use should a pandemic arise. But, at least the laboratory ferrets, will be protected.