By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Researchers at Saint Louis University are continuing their work into a possible vaccine for bird flu.
They began a study on children earlier this year. Now they're expanding their research to adults.
The scientists are working with the well-known H-5-N-1 strain of the virus.
That strain has infected humans who came into contact with diseased birds. But so far it has not evolved to a point where it can jump from person to person.
SLU's Doctor Robert Belshe says once his team figures out the right dose, it should be easy to adapt the vaccine as the virus mutates.
"We expect that all of the bird flu vaccine strains today would be very comparable, and so the dosing studies that we're doing today will tell us how much to use," Belshe said.
Belshe says his team needs volunteers over the age of 18 for the clinical trial.