# 1539
This idea has come up before.
In February of 2007, I blogged on this very subject after Dr. Richard Webby of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital announced the findings of some of their research on this matter.
An excerpt from an Article by Maggie Fox from Feb. 14th, 2007 :
Study suggests possible bird flu immunity
By Maggie Fox
The researchers found that mice inoculated with a human virus known as H1N1 were less likely to die when they were infected with a little bit of H5N1 -- although this protection went away after a bigger dose of H5N1.
The finding suggests it is possible that some people previously infected with or vaccinated against flu may have a slight protection from H5N1, the researchers wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.
"It is weak protection," said Richard Webby at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "It is not protection from infection -- it is protection from death."
Now we get word of a new study from the Bangkok International Conference on Avian Influenza 2008 : Integration from Knowledge to Control.
Seasonal flu vaccine may help in fight against H5N1
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Animals that have previously been vaccinated against seasonal flu appear to respond far quicker to experimental H5N1 bird flu vaccines, a study has found.
Many doctors believe that seasonal flu vaccines offer little or no protection against the H5N1 virus, which experts say may unleash a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
But a study by biotechnology firm MedImmune Inc, which produces influenza vaccine, found that ferrets that had been vaccinated against seasonal flu appeared to be more responsive when they were later administered the H5N1 vaccine.
"If you have previously received normal seasonal flu vaccine, you may have better response to the H5N1 vaccine," MedImmune's scientist Hong Jin told a bird flu conference in Bangkok.
Researchers at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome published a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases in December showing that ordinary seasonal flu vaccines may provide a small amount of protection against bird flu.
The protection afforded against the H5N1 virus by seasonal flu vaccines (and presumably prevous bouts with the flu) are likely to be small.
This latest study simply say's that it may help boost the immune response to an H5N1 vaccine. Earlier studies suggest it might help reduce the mortality rate of H5N1 infection in some people.
But any advantage, even a small one, is welcome when dealing with a virus as deadly as bird flu.
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