A Rapid Test for Avian Flu Available

I last mentioned the avian flu virus (H5N1) over a year ago. In the meantime, the number of confirmed cases of human infection has risen to 417, with 257 deaths, in 15 countries. Almost all of these are from Asia or northern Africa, most recently in Egypt and Vietnam. The virus hasn’t been detected in the Americas.

Now a test for H5N1 virus has been approved by the FDA that only takes 40 minutes. Previous tests required 3-4 hours. This is a considerable advance, as rapid diagnosis and isolation of cases is essential for containing the inevitable epidemic, when it occurs.

There is at present no specific vaccine available for the probable pandemic form of H5N1. Vaccines are generally developed to correspond to the actual mutated form of a virus infecting the population. Thus fully-targeted vaccines cannot be made until the avian flu mutates to the form that will start infecting humans in an epidemic or pandemic. Nevertheless, there are numerous vaccines in development - they just may not be specific enough for the mutated form of H5N1.