The U.S. health authorities have decided to fund vaccine development in response to recent signs of the highly pathogenic bird flu, also known as avian influenza, spreading. This has raised concerns about a potential pandemic due to the virus’s high fatality rate in humans.
According to AP News on the 2nd, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to provide $176 million to the vaccine manufacturer Moderna to expedite the development of an avian influenza vaccine.
Recently, human infections have been reported frequently as the avian influenza virus has been detected in dairy cows.
After the avian influenza virus was found in dairy cows earlier this year in the United States, it has now spread to 12 states, with confirmed human cases among those who had contact with the cows.
Although the virus found in the United States is H5N1. a different strain classified as H5N2 has also been detected.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a man who had been infected with the H5N2 virus died due to various factors.
Robert Redfield, Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has expressed concern that the fatality rate when the highly pathogenic avian influenza becomes transmissible to humans could be significant compared to COVID-19, potentially ranging “between 25% and 50%.”
Despite the recent concerns, the U.S. health authorities currently do not consider the risk of avian influenza to be high.
Moderna is reportedly in the early stages of testing an avian influenza vaccine developed using the same messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology that facilitated the rapid development and release of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The funding from U.S. health authorities will be used to advance vaccine development, including late-stage clinical trials next year if initial research results are positive.
An HHS official emphasized that if a virus other than H5N1 emerges, the project can be swiftly adjusted to target different forms of influenza.
