# 3112
The big question on just about everyone’s mind these days is: “How soon will we have a vaccine for this new H1N1 flu?”
Answering that question with a date certain, at this stage of the game, is almost impossible.
There are a great many things that must go `right’ in the creation, testing, and manufacturing of a vaccine before it can be delivered to the general public.
Maryn McKenna, editor of the Superbug blog, and author Beating Back The Devil and an upcoming book on MRSA is a contributing writer for CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy) News. She is uniquely qualified to write on the subject of developing a vaccine for this new flu.
Her 7-Part Series on The Pandemic Vaccine Puzzle, published in 2007 by CIDRAP, outlined in great detail the challenges involved in creating, testing, and distributing a pandemic vaccine.
This series won an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, and is well worth going back and reading.
I’ll only post the opening paragraphs to today’s article. Please follow the link in it's entirety.
Path to swine flu vaccine has major hurdles
Maryn McKenna
Contributing Writer
May 1, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – National and international health authorities said today that they have begun the first steps in manufacturing a vaccine against the novel H1N1 swine influenza, though they appeared to disagree over whether full-scale manufacturing will move forward.
But flu-vaccine experts in several countries warned that major manufacturing and regulatory hurdles lie in the path toward achieving a pandemic vaccine, hurdles that have been recognized by governments for years but never successfully dealt with.
There is agreement on one point: The current seasonal flu vaccine will not protect against the novel virus. If authorities decide that a swine-flu vaccine is necessary, a new one will have to be formulated.
"There is very little chance that the seasonal vaccine as used in the vast majority of countries in the world would be effective against this particular virus," Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the World Health Organization's Initiative for Vaccine Research, said in a briefing today in Geneva.
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