Avian Flu Vaccine: What to Know

Although a candidate bird flu vaccine is not yet on the market, medical experts recommend that people get it at some point.

Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious disease and internal medicine specialist at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, told Fox Business that the shot protects people and those around them from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A (HIH5N1) virus, otherwise known as bird flu. Flu

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, “The US government is developing vaccines against avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses if necessary.”

According to the CDC, human infections with the HPAI A (H5N1) virus are rare, but unprotected exposure to any infected animals or areas with infected birds or other infected animals increases the chance of infection.

The bird flu virus in wild birds has caused outbreaks among commercial poultry and backyard flocks and has spread to wild and domestic mammals, according to the CDC. Since 1997, there have been sporadic human infections in 23 countries, with a mortality rate of over 50%. However, few human cases have been reported since 2022. Most infections occur through close contact with sick or dead infected poultry or exposure to dairy cattle during ongoing H5N1 outbreaks.

As prices rise with bird flu, US egg production declines

People at high risk for bird flu – poultry workers, dairy and livestock farmers – are told to wear protective clothing, including N95 masks, gloves and eye protection, to reduce the risk of exposure.

At the beginning of this week, when did the concerns about the virus grow? A patient died in Louisiana After the first human hospitalization with bird flu. Louisiana Department of Health officials confirmed the patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of non-commercial backyard flocks and wild birds. It marked the first bird flu death.

Yancey said the virus has a high fatality rate and has spread from birds to mammals, which is a serious concern.

“We know that it’s only a couple of mutations away from being able to spread from person to person, which is why we’ve started developing a vaccine,” Yancey said. She believes that this is either “because we’re actively monitoring this… or because it’s going to mutate and spread and affect the population.”

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician in New York City, told FOX Business that people should “be vigilant.”

“As avian influenza spreads among birds and other mammals, including dairy cattle and pigs, the chances of a ‘reassortment event’ increase the likelihood of a potentially problematic genetic mutation,” he said.

A “breeding event” occurs when two different viruses exchange genetic material, creating a new virus with a mixture of traits from both. This often happens in viruses like influenza and can lead to new strains.

The bird flu patient had a viral mutation, a concern about human spread

Yancey said it shouldn’t be long until a new vaccine is developed.

“All we have to do is make this new strain, which is what we do every flu season. Every flu season, we have a new flu vaccine for the strains that are circulating that season. So, all we have to do is make this new strain,” she said.

In the year In July 2024, Modenada was awarded $176 million from the US government to develop an mRNA-based vaccine to treat bird flu in humans.

Glatter said the development of bird flu vaccines is “important at this time given the recent mortality” and believes that when it is approved, patients at high risk of adverse effects – lung and heart disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer patients and those with autoimmune conditions – should be the first recipients. He further said that it should be extended to vulnerable patients.

Egg prices are high and will continue until 2025

For now, the best way people can protect themselves is to get a seasonal flu shot. The current influenza vaccine “reduces the potential for human exposure to avian and human influenza viruses. It also reduces the potential for human influenza to spread to animals such as pigs.”

This ultimately reduces the chances of a “reorganization event”.