The research is published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and was sponsored by vaccine manufacturer Aviron, Mountain View, Calif., in cooperation with the National Institutes of Health. The study follows another report in a recent JAMA, showing that an inhaled drug, zanamivir, prevented flu in about two thirds of the study participants. The company plans to submit an application for approval to the FDA later this year. These findings, and research underway on several different compounds, suggest that scientists may discover ways to eliminate the annual misery of flu outbreaks among both high and low risk groups. The virus makes an estimated 30 million people sick enough to seek medical help each year, and it kills about 25,000.
Flu is also responsible for millions of lost workdays, the scientists say.
From an individual, medical and public health point of view, the answer is clearly yes. The vaccine, they say, represents a major potential addition to the armamentarium, for control of influenza, a least in children and healthy adults. Another study, published in 1998, showed the vaccine prevented illness in children, and worked better than flu shots. Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved.