Having an oral Bird Flu vaccine for the H5N1 human strain could be a godsend for the human race and a potentially profitable situation for Rouche Pharmaceuticals, which produces the Tamiflu vaccine. Recently however this subject came up in an online think tank where one individual states:

One of my friends who is also incidentally pursuing a career in the medical field confirmed me that the Tamiflu oral suspension in the recent times have not been that effective in treating the bird flu patients, so does this suggest that the H5N1 virus has already developed mutation to the Tamiflu oral suspension?

Now this indeed is a scary thought, as we are all counting on this vaccine to work. Especially in Africa right now as the H5N1 is already there with minor breakouts. Still it does not appear to be easily spread from human to human, but scientists say, well that is only a matter of time. Another think tanker responded to this comment and asked;

Where is additional information on this subject? I question the source and information. It is possible the H5N1 is dissimilar to the original Tamiflu vaccine for the other strains and thus may not be effective in defeating it. Or it could also be that we have only been giving out the vaccine after the fact and by then it is too late to help and the human immune system is already activated full tilt trying to defeat it itself.

The theory of vaccines is to help the body build immunity prior to the exposure. In fact there may have been many more people with H5N1 who defeated the virus them selves and never got sick enough to be noticed. If you only give the vaccine to those who have it already how would you know? Unless like in China it appears that they have been testing it on peasants in the Southern provinces, although no one will admit that. They would know if this is the case. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/