February 07, 2011  Universal Flu Vaccine human clinical trials
reports success  UK Guardian - Oxford University human clinical
trials that began in 2008 have reported successful results for a
universal flu vaccine. A universal vaccine would save the time
and money now needed to create vaccines to fight whatever
particular virus has emerged in any year. The UK government
spends almost $2 billion/year in preparing for the swine flu
outbreak of last winter. There is also the potential to save the
250,000 to 500,000 lost worldwide because of the flu in a
typical year. There is also the risk of flu pandemics which can
kill millions in one year.  The results showed that the vaccine
worked as planned. "Fewer of the people who were vaccinated got
flu than the people who weren't vaccinated," said Gilbert. "We
did get an indication that the vaccine was protecting people,
not only from the numbers of people who got flu but also from
looking at their T-cells before we gave them flu. The people we
vaccinated had T-cells t