500 million eggs needed to fight flu every year

Mon, Mar 26, 2018 | By publisher


Agriculture

WHILE many hens lay eggs that are decorated and eaten during Easter season, others work in the name of global health and help produce hundreds of millions of flu vaccines all year long.

Every year, between 450 million and 500 million eggs are used for immunisation shots, said Martin Friede, the chief vaccine researcher at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.

“More than 90 per cent of the world’s flu vaccine is being produced with the help of eggs,’’ he recently told dpa in Geneva.

Scientists rely on products that cannot be bought in supermarkets.

The quality they need can only be found in special farms where hens are kept under strictly controlled conditions.

“It’s more expensive than producing your omelette eggs,’’ Friede said, adding that the chickens cannot be eaten.

“Too scrawny,’’ he said.

Twice a year, WHO experts decide which influenza virus variants would dominate the next flu season.

Laboratories then produce the necessary viruses and send them to vaccine factories, where they are injected into eggs.

After around 10 days, billions of copies of the virus have matured in the egg white.

They are then deactivated with heat or chemicals, turning them into harmless but effective vaccines.

Researchers have long been looking for alternative host cell cultures, including cells from a dog’s kidney tumour and from insects.

The cell culture from the tumour could be reproduced infinitely, according to Friede.

But these approaches are not yet ready for mass production.

“Eggs will definitely continue to play a decisive role in the production of influenza vaccine for the next 20 years,’’ Friede said. (dpa/NAN)

– Mar. 26, 2018 @ 11:42 GMT |

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One thought on "500 million eggs needed to fight flu every year"

  1. Proof of my immunity. Lymphocytosis in 3 immunograms. 1) the immunogram was made in late August 2017 by lymphocytes 4108.
    2) once made in mid-September lymphocytes 3864 3) times made in mid-March lymphocytes 3936. 4 days after the disease. He was ill with flu for 3 days, but he was not treated. According to the immunologist of lymphocytes, as a result of activation of T-helpers, it is almost 2 times exceeded 1574.
    I’m alive because of my very strong immunity. I am ill with olivopontocebribular degeneration with the otrophy of the cerebellum. The threshold of life is from 10 to 20 years and I live with this disease for 25 years. The disease continues to worsen, but thanks to my immunity this process is slowed down. In Japan, a medicine for influenza has been created. With the help of my immunity, you can create the most powerful medicine for influenza.