Thanks for the information.

I'm wondering here....I live in the U.S., but I wonder how much each and every virus differs from Country to Country? Not just the swine flu, but all flu viruses?
For example: If I lived in China, Japan, Vietnam: The flu season there is during our off season when there is no frost. Their flu season begins when our flu season ends. They have several different types of flu's which are serious compared to ours with more respiratory issues and other issues as well. Would those countries need to find a vaccine for their types of flu's which could mix with the swine flu?
But say, a person in Germany who contacts the bird flu, as birds are migrating to that area, say from Berlin. The birds carry the disease but it must mix with a flu virus that a person has. The flu in Germany may not be the same as EVERYWHERE else.
So, my question is: Would each country have to have their very own swine flu immunization for the type of flu which it can mix with? There are so many subtypes....would an immunization have to be made for each and every subtype or just the one that is found in a human at that time?
Rose46wood.

Hi,
I am not an expert but I think that it is necessary to clarify some concepts:

• A vaccine is mostly based on deactivated virus which should cause an antiviral reaction from body: i.e. production of antigens.
  
• An antiviral drug does not create any immuno reaction in the body but it should help the body fighting against the viral infection.
  
• For producing vaccine, the virus must be available (identified and isolated). Afterwards the vaccine industry "duplicate" the virus (biotechnology) in order to have enough virus for each vaccine dose. It costs time, effort and each new vaccine has to go through clinical tests in order to measure its efficiency and to check that it does not cause any adverse reaction.
  
• Usually, seasonal influenza vaccines combine several viruses which could possibly appear during a limited time period (season). It is the reason why, sometimes, vaccines do not protect sufficiently because some viruses were not identified at the elaboration time. In few words: people are protected but not against the appropriate viruses.
  
• Indeed vaccine alone is not enough because it will never provide a 100% protection (especially in case of influenza). For this particular reason antiviral drugs are necessary.
  
• Regarding H1N1, at this time (maybe I should correct the following assessment in the future), the influenza pandemy grows quickly but the consequences are not particular dramatic in comparison to usual yearly influenza. Anyway, observers and researchers are afraid of possible combination of H1N1 with others - and more aggressive virus - which could have a dramatic impact on the pandemy consequences.
  
• The difficulty with antiviral drug is to not cause resistance by the virus. Therefore, we need several antiviral drugs in order to be able to react in case of resistance. It is also a good reason not to use unnecessarily antiviral drugs in order to avoid - as far as possible - virus resistance.
  

It is a good thing to crunch for this antiviral project because the results will be useful not only for the immediate next time but also for a middle and long term perspective.
Cheers,
Yves

Hello kskjold,
Generally speaking, for most projects, the results are published in a research paper, then the database on which the paper is based is released to the public. The database is an extra unusual step and usually takes a while for people to figure out. Often WCG (or IBM) has to offer some help.

So no -- the results are not available while we are still crunching them. It takes a lot longer.

Lawrence

I thought that Glaxo will release it's AH1N1 vaccine but it seems that there are other company already released the vaccine but the Department of Health said that there are no such thing as vaccine still being released.