Dubai: An international team of scientists have designed a new generation of universal flu vaccines to protect against pandemics that could kill millions worldwide.
One vaccine can protect against up to 88 per cent of known flu strains in a single shot, Science Daily reported quoting a study published in the journal Bioinformatics.
The collaboration involving the universities of Lancaster, Aston and Complutense in Madrid devised two universal vaccines: one covers 95 per cent of known US influenza strains and another protects against 88 per cent of known flu strains globally
“Every year we have a round of flu vaccination, where we choose a recent strain of flu as the vaccine…it works reasonably well most of the time. However, sometimes it doesn’t work. Also, these yearly vaccines give us no protection at all against potential future pandemic flu,” Dr Derek Gatherer of Lancaster University said.
Annual flu epidemics are estimated to cause up to half a million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.
