Two U.S. universities are studying whether one strong injection of a new smallpox vaccine would offer greater protection than two doses of a weaker treatment provided over a period of four weeks, St. Louis University in Missouri announced this week (see GSN, May 18).
"Because of continuing concern about biowarfare and bioterrorism throughout the world, the United States government is working to improve its ability to protect its citizens in the event of a possible bioterrorist attack with the smallpox virus," chief researcher Sharon Frey, an infectious diseases professor at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, said in a press release.
"If there is a smallpox outbreak, getting people vaccinated as quickly as possible will be a matter of urgency. Giving a single injection of a much stronger vaccine could allow us to protect people much more quickly, when time is of the essence," she added. "We're comparing two doses of the same vaccine to see if a single injection of the high-dose vaccine stimulates the body's defense system against smallpox as well as giving two injections of the lower dose."
The study is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and would involve 90 volunteers at St. Louis University and the University of Iowa. It would use Imvamune, a developmental vaccine produced by Danish biotechnology firm Bavarian Nordic (St. Louis University release, June 30).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100702_9539.php
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