Prep Work: Bird-flu vaccine might work better with primer
By Nathan Seppa
Avian-influenza virus is evolving, so no one can predict the exact genetic makeup of a killer bird-flu strain that would spread from person to person and cause a pandemic. So, if such a strain arose, manufacturers would be hard-pressed to rapidly make enough effective vaccine.
Scientists are looking for ways to stretch the amount of vaccine that would be available. One team now reports that priming people against bird flu with an existing, if not perfectly specific, vaccine might render a specially tailored one more potent during a pandemic.