Hungary makes headway with vaccination against bird flu
Do influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle and, more importantly, with the last outbreak a good four decades ago is the world due for another? The World Health Organisation warns that the bird flu virus in several Asian countries could unleash a human influenza pandemic; the darkest prognosis: 50 million people dead. Luckily, Asia's battle with the virus has not resulted in mass hysteria, but the world's virologists are busy preparing...just in case.
Hungary is one of the first countries in the world to have made headway in developing a vaccine, which it has just tried on around one hundred volunteers. Three high ranking health officials were among them - health minister Jeno Racz, chief national health officer Laszlo Bujdosó, and the government commissioner for health Mihaly Kökény. Radio Budapest spoke to Mr Kökeny just 24 hours after he received the shot:
"Basically, we are not at the final stage. The present form of the vaccine, which has been developed, is just a basis for further refinement, depending on the exact type of the virus, which could appear and could be really dangerous for human beings. So this, I would say, is an intermediate phase of production of the vaccine. But the final form can only be produced when the real risk will appear and we know the exact type of the flu virus that is the real cause of the epidemic. So, we have made some preparation in this regard and it will really make the whole process easier."
In case of an avian influenza outbreak, can you guess how long it will take to develop the real thing then?
"According to the plan developed by the Hungarian Public Health Service and the producer, it can take up to three months to produce the necessary type of vaccine."
I think Hungary can really be proud of this achievement. How is it that we were among the first in the world to develop the vaccination?
"The reason why Hungary has the necessary capacity in the vaccine production is because we have our own producer and we started the experiment in the very early phase. Also, the government felt that it should really be encouraged and supported from the very early warnings. But we still don't know whether this intermediate vaccine is really able to build up an immune response in human beings even though it was not toxic and efficient during the animal testing. We will know in three weeks time when we analyse the blood samples of the one hundred volunteers, including myself, whether this vaccine is the one we really need."
"I think that most of them could really be cured or the symptoms of the infection would be less severe. We know that the drugs available do not provide a comprehensive and secure regime for the treatment. They would just help prevent the patient from suffering from the symptoms. But the real solution is the vaccination."
Just one day after the shot, how are you feeling?
"Absolutely fine. I am not feeling bad and have no fever. I feel as always; I'm fine."
