Australian researchers are addressing a major breakthrough in the development of a universal flu vaccine, which can offer protection against all known flu virus and mutations.
The discovery has already been labeled an “extraordinary breakthrough,” which could help create a universal vaccine.
The yearly flu shots can now be replaced by this world’s first universal vaccine, a one-shot vaccine.
Researchers at the Doherty Institute and Monash University studied 67,000 viral sequences and pegged them down to three sequences, which are common among all strains of the influenza virus and have not mutated for the past century.
Further, they identified the so-called “killer T-cells,” which are found in more than half the world’s pollution. These killer T cells act like your body’s private security, detecting infections and abnormalities and killing them.
The researchers explained that harvesting and replicating the killer T-cells could result in the production of a one-shot vaccine, which needs to be administrated once in 10 years or plausibly once in a lifetime.
They have patented this groundbreaking discovery keeping the development of a universal flu vaccine in mind. They have also patented it to lower or prevent the impact of an epidemic and seasonal flu across the world.
We all know that the flu can be particularly dangerous for children, elderly, and immunocompromised patients. According to the World Health Organization, worldwide, influenza epidemics kill approximately 500,000 people each year. Although this discovery has been considered an “extraordinary breakthrough,” there is one limitation with this new “Holy Grail’ universal flu vaccine. Scientists explained that this flu vaccine would only work for half the world’s population based on their levels of killer T-cells. They have already started working to overcome this limitation and to make this a universal vaccine.
