How to make a vaccine against H1N1

    The global H1N1 flu epidemic is the first global pandemic of this magnitude since 1968. And for the scientific community, and for doctors this is a very important event. From an economic point of view, there is also a certain interest. $ 3 billion was invested in decoding the H1N1 genome and developing a vaccine; five companies are involved in the production of the medicine, one of them is the American corporation Sanofi Pasteur , which has already received an order from the government for the first 75 million doses.

    In the US, the number of deaths from H1N1 has already reached 100 people per week, and on October 25, President Obama declared a state of emergency in the country. Authorities began urging people to get vaccinated. CBS Channel in the popular program "60 minutes" showed a popular science filmwhich explains the production and distribution process as well as the medical impact of the H1N1 vaccine (accompanying text for the film here ). Despite the implementation of a “social order” to some extent, the film contains a number of interesting facts.

    There is only one American H1N1 vaccine in a factory in Swiftwater, PA. As in other vaccines, the H1N1 virus is grown in chicken eggs, here the technology has not improved much since the Second World War.

    The virus is injected with a needle into the egg from the top, then the egg is placed in an incubator with a constant temperature and humidity. There, viruses grow and multiply, and then they are removed and weakened to vaccinate people.

    Thus, a lot of eggs are needed (for the sake of national security, it is even forbidden to divulge from which farms they bring eggs, moreover, farm owners enjoy such privileges that they are the first to receive a vaccine in short supply). A program to finance specialized private farms that produce huge numbers of eggs is part of the $ 7 billion plan that the Bush administration launched in the event of a possible future pandemic. As you can see, the forecast came true quite quickly.

    However, in the case of H1N1, big problems arose. It turned out that in eggs this virus does not reproduce as fast as the ordinary flu virus. This was completely unexpected for specialists (here the “swine flu” virus, so to speak, planted a pig for them). As a result, Sanofi Pasteur was unable to fulfill the plan. Currently, the company shipped only 17 million doses of vaccine to American clinics, although according to preliminary estimates made in the summer, it planned to produce 120 million doses by this time (then the estimate was reduced to 40 million, but even this plan was not fulfilled). Therefore, now vaccines are sorely lacking for everyone, even in the USA, and the vaccine has not been delivered to Russia at all and it is not known when it will be delivered and at what price. Under a contract with WHO, she must donate 100 million doses free of charge to poor countries,

    All five world vaccine manufacturers are gradually increasing production (last week they added a total of 9 million doses), but vaccine demand is growing even faster.

    First of all, children should get the vaccine, and in the USA there is a special plan for general vaccination in schools. But at the same time, not all parents agree to vaccination. For example, in New York last week, more than half of parents refused to vaccinate their children. On average in the country, the proportion of refuseniks is about 40%. Many people don’t understand why they should be vaccinated if the mortality rate from H1N1 is less than from ordinary flu, and with a probability of 99.8%, a person recovers in a couple of days without any complications and develops immunity in a natural way.

    Also popular now: