Prime-boost vaccination using influenza A H5N1 vaccines

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Vaccination offers the best method for protecting the general population against an influenza pandemic, but has limitations. The output from the vaccine industry will be insufficient to meet demand, and the time required to make a pandemic vaccine means that it will be scarce and possibly unavailable during the first wave of the pandemic. The new, deadly H5N1 influenza virus, when given as an ordinary vaccine, is also very poor at stimulating protective antibody responses. Our study explores the possibility of ?priming? people with small quantities of an H5 adjuvanted vaccine (which contains a substance to enhance the body?s immune response) before a pandemic with the expectation that the body will develop a more vigorous immune response to a pandemic vaccine when it became available. This would enable scarce supplies of pandemic vaccine to be given more efficiently, with protection of more people more rapidly