Reading Roars!

We are already living in an age of fear. Now experts are saying that a flu pandemic is on its way.

The bird flu detected in Turkey is now said to be the same deadly strain as that found in Asia: H591. Furthermore, the death of three ducks in Romania will probably also be attributed to the same virus. Fine. Ducks are ducks. But if this flu mutates and spreads from human to human, we may well have a wave of death sweeping the globe (not unlike the Spanish Flu, responsible for 40m deaths in 1918).

The Director of the Animal Production and Health Division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Samuel Jutzi, believes that the virus is more likely to progress into neighbouring countries and Africa, rather than western Europe. This is pretty rotten, as Africa has it’s fair share of bacterial nasties already.

So, who do we blame (a pertinent question these days)? Tricky. And where does Reading fit into all this?

Well, interestingly enough, Reading University’s School of Animal & Microbial Sciences is one of 6 partners in a consortium named FLUPAN:

a collaborative research project funded by the European Commission…The project is directed towards improved preparation for an influenza pandemic.

The other partners are named as National Institute for Biological Standards and Control; Istituto Superiore di Sanita; Enteric, Respiratory and Neurological Virus Laboratory, Health Protection Agency; sanofi pasteur and The Gade Institute’s Immunochemistry Laboratory Dept of Microbiology & Immunology.

The consortium’s objectives are stated as the following:

Reverse genetics will be used to modify a highly pathogenic H7N1 avian influenza virus, so that it is safe to use and will grow well on mammalian cells.

Experimental vaccines will be produced, which will be evaluated pre-clinically and clinically

Libraries of reagents will be produced from a variety of animal influenza viruses and new techniques will be investigated for producing cell culture vaccines and for monitoring transmission of animal viruses to man.

The outcome of all this is expected to be an improvement in the level of pandemic preparation in the EU.

So, hope for us all?