Via ABC Radio Australia: Australia on board in global bird flu fight. Excerpt:
Australian researchers are taking part in a global project to help protect people against the deadly bird flu virus.
Australian researchers are taking part in a global project to help protect people against the deadly bird flu virus.
The H5N1 virus has infected only about 600 people world-wide, none of them in Australia, but it carries a mortality rate of three in five.
That has got the United States Government concerned and it is funding a global vaccine project being trialed in humans.
Newcastle's Hunter Clinical Research is one of the centres taking part and it's looking for volunteers to undergo human trials
They are hoping to find out the smallest dose of an H5N1 vaccine needed for human protection, to create global stockpiles in case of a world-wide pandemic.
The Newcastle study's principal investigator, Dr Marc Russo, says it is a global insurance policy.
"Even if the risk is low, if the outcome is potentially catastrophic, it is still worth insuring against a catastrophic risk," he said.
