Universal Flu Vaccine May Be The Key

Not many people really look forward to getting a flu shot. It’s only a little prick in the arm and temporary pain, but sometimes the flu vaccine can make you a little sick. Two years ago I was still in the National Guard. I was at weekend drill and they said that we had to get flu shots that day. Great, a free flu shot, right? Well, I had just got a flu shot about a week or so prior at my place of employment.

(Image: Newscom)

Of course information wasn’t passed on and I didn’t bring anything saying that I already got a flue shot. The National Guard isn’t going to listen to you tell them that you just got one unless they see some kind of documentation so I got it again. Less than a week later I was sick as a dog with…you guessed it, flu like symptoms.

With the recent outbreak of the swine flu that is spreading like wild-fire and the worry that still looms over avian flu, a universal flu vaccine could make a huge difference and prevent outbreaks.

Currently, new vaccines have to be developed each flu season to match circulating influenza strains. Adding a universal vaccine to a seasonal vaccine would boost protection against strains of influenza as they change each year, Dr. Robert Belshe, director of the university’s Center for Vaccine Development, said in a school news release.

Nobody knows what’s going to come out of this recent strain of non-human influenza and we can only hope that it can be controlled and treated. Containment is pretty much out of the question these days, with travel and everything else. Before there was so much international travel and thousands of planes in the air, containment of a possibly pandemic virus could be controlled and contained better. Perhaps a universal vaccine can help, if not a little bit.

Read More about the Universal Vaccine at MSNHealth.com.