By IANS
New York : The human trials of a vaccine designed to give life long protection against all types of flu have produced promising results in the US.
It would still be some years before it is widely available for patients but scientists say it is safe and works fast to immunise the body against flu.
The vaccine ACAM-FLU-A, made by British company Acambis, was tested on 10 people. Nine of them developed antibodies against flu viruses, reported the online edition of BBC News.
Scientists at Acambis are now working to perfect the formulation before doing larger human trials.
“As a universal vaccine the new jab can potentially overcome many of the drawbacks of existing influenza vaccines,” Michael Watson of Acambis said.
“It can be manufactured at any time of the year and stockpiled in advance of a pandemic or potentially used routinely to ensure population protection against future pandemics,” he added.
Acambis claims the vaccine can give lifelong protection against all strains of influenza A – an acute, highly contagious infection of the respiratory tract that commonly occurs in the winter.
Currently, flu jabs have to be regularly redesigned because the flu virus keeps changing.