Cuba achieves one-shot vaccine for five diseases
By IANSTuesday, July 20, 2010
HAVANA - Cuban scientists have come out with a single-dose vaccine to prevent five diseases—diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus flu Type B, the state-owned Prensa Latina news agency reported.
Registered by the Centre for State Control of Medicine Quality, the vaccine is ready to be applied nationwide, according to Luis Herrera, the director of the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara.
The new medicine implies savings, because only one vial is needed for each dose instead of four, and no additional handling is needed, Herrera said.
On July 16, a Telegraph report from London said that a single “universal” flu vaccine offering protection against many strains of the virus could be available within a few years.
Scientists believe they have solved the problem of designing a “one fits all” jab using a new two-step approach to immunisation.
Early safety trials of the vaccine have already started and it could be tested on patients as early as 2013, the report said.
