With the bird flu scare in China, scientists have rapidly been trying to develop a bird flu vaccine. Here's all you need to know about a bird flu vaccine.
Why would I need a bird flu vaccine?
You would need a bird flu vaccine if you work with poultry and are at high risk of getting bird flu. Bird flu generally affects birds and some other animals, such as pigs, but it can be spread to humans via bird feces or other secretions. However, you can't get a bird flu vaccine quite yet.
The best way to protect yourself from bird flu is to cook your poultry thoroughly, avoid open air markets, cover your face if you work with poultry, wash your hands if you touch birds or are anywhere near their excretions and steer clear of raw eggs. A bird flu vaccine for humans really isn't an option right now.
What is a bird flu vaccine?
A bird flu vaccine acts like any other vaccine. It's a small bit of the virus enters the body which forces your body to attack it and build an immunity to it. However a bird flu vaccine is not something that you can march into the doctor and ask for. Right now there isn't an effective bird flu vaccine and those that have been discovered are being given to poultry. You can ask your doctor for a regular flu vaccination. Though it won't protect you from bird flu, it may help a dual infection.
The Chinese recently agreed to share a bird flu vaccine they had with other countries because some other bird flu vaccines that were believed to work, were not working.
Bird flu vaccine, good or bad?
There's a lot of controversy over implementing a bird flu vaccine because scientist have a difficult time agreeing on the effectiveness of a bird flu vaccine. This debate has recently gotten a lot of attention in the media.
Usually when a group of animals is carrying a communicable disease, they are destroyed because vaccines are not 100 percent proof positive. However, because bird flu has spread to several birds in different areas of China and Asia, scientist have started giving the birds a bird flu vaccine, hoping that the vaccine itself will help combat the disease.
Many scientists are afraid that not only with the bird flu vaccine fail, but it will also encourage newer, stronger strands of bird flu to mutate and spread to more animals. The major concern with this school of thought is that the new strand will be transmitted from person to person, rather than animal to person. An effective bird flu vaccine is still in the works and may be for some time.
