The Rising Case of H5N1 Influenza Virus: How World is Preparing Against It

The H5N1 Bird Flu began spreading all over the USA in the last four years which took the life of many birds in the USA. Over a year, the bird flu virus spreads from birds to mammals like cows, pets, and foxes too. The bird flu virus we are talking about is the H5N1 virus.

It is now taking the lives of 91m farmed birds infected in the US across 48 states. The virus is spreading very fast from birds to cattle and cats. Many cats are getting ill and dying, but till that time there was no human case suddenly one of the workers on a dairy farm in Texas contracted the H5N1 virus last month.

Its widespread contamination among the birds and cows led health agencies in the USA to prepare for the jabs in advance.

What is the H5N1 Virus Also Known as the Bird Flu Virus?

The H5N1 virus is the Influenza A subtype, which predominantly causes influenza in birds. In most of the cases, symptoms are fatal or severe. It also becomes Panzootic and sometimes affects mammals like humans, cows, and cats.

An estimated half of billions of birds are slaughtered to contain the virus.

How the World is Preparing for the H5N1 Virus?

In the UK the Virologist Prof Paul Digar and his team at the Roslin Insititute in Edinburgh were given the £3.3m grant to complete the production of the H5N1 vaccine and evaluate how it might pose a threat to humans.

It also poses a challenge to the US and European govt. To create vaccines for everyone if the pandemic outbreak happens.

The UK Health Security Agency running a procurement exercise to source suitable jabs. The USA has a stock of four types of flu vaccines to protect against the H5N1 Virus. It is highly challenging in the case of the pandemic how the world is going to provide vaccines against the virus.

The Number of H5N1  Doses and the New Technology that is Better Than the Old

US Central for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the batch of two vaccines against the Virus could be shipped within weeks. Even Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to produce the vaccines without the need for a license. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the estimated number of 4-8 bn of vaccines could be produced within one year against the H5N1 pandemic. But for the overall population, the estimates should be calculated cause the total of two doses required within three to four weeks apart.

The preparation of vaccines against H5N1 is highly costly and covers the large pool of people's demand in case a pandemic spreads is highly difficult due to the lengthy preparation time

The GSK company signed a contract in 2022 with the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, to prepare the adjuvant (the ingredients that are added to the vaccines to boost immunity) called Adjupanrix for the 12 EU member nations in case of H5N1 pandemic hit. They have to prepare 85m Adjupanrix with a dose of 3.75 micrograms

Technology Uses for the Preparation of the Vaccines

The vaccine preparation is bolstered due to the H5N1 virustransmission from the bird to the humans. Speed is important in the production of vaccines because to cover a large population with the use of vaccines is impossible at this peak time.

The two technologies are used for the manufacture of vaccines one is old and time-consuming but another is new.

According to the WHO, 70% of the vaccines are produced by using old standard vaccine technology incubation in chicken eggs that required 6 months..

The mRNA technologies proved to be more efficient techniques in the production of the H5N1 vaccine, it is more efficient techniques than the egg-based technology. Pharmaceutical companies like Moderna, GSK, and CureVac working in collaboration to test people against the vaccine but in the past, they were unable to stimulate a sufficient immune response

The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh virologist professor Paul Digard says “ It’s the technology that is potentially applicable to this, “I don’t think we have the data yet to say that it works as well.”

Many suggest that vaccination of poultry farm animals and birds should be vaccinated first to slow the transmission of the virus.

An associate professor from the University of Georgia’s Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre is not convinced with the idea of vaccinating poultry animals “Vaccination of commercial poultry would not decrease the amount of viable virus in the environment since there is so much being shed by wild birds,” she says. “The spread into dairy cattle is likely linked to wild birds in those dairies. There are no approved H5N1 vaccines for use in farm animals or household pets; those would need to be developed, which is a process that takes around four years.”

The rising cases of the H5N1 virus among humans is creating concern many government health departments and pharma bodies are taking preventive measures to control its spread.

But in the USA and UK patients show mild infection, Digard gives his stance “if viral becomes epidemic There have been human cases in the UK over the last couple of years, but they’ve been really mild and generally asymptomatic,” he says. “I’m not minimizing the risk – if this did go pandemic, even with a very mild virus, people would end up dying because of the sheer numbers who get infected. Even swine flu, which is the mildest flu pandemic we have records for, still killed hundreds of thousands of people. But it wouldn’t be a science-fiction-style pandemic.”