The Swine Flu Vaccine and Why It's Not Available

With the number of swine flu cases growing every day in the United States and Mexico, and considering the new cases found in Spain, it's natural to wonder if a swine flu vaccine has been created and whether it could stop the further spread of this disease.

The short answer is no, there is no swine flu vaccine, and the regular seasonal influenza shot won't protect you from the swine flu, but the reason why there is no swine flu vaccine is much more interesting and filled with health concerns.

The swine flu, once transmitted from pig to pig only, mutated in the early 1900s. The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and 1919 was discovered to be a strain of the swine virus. Worried about a wide-spread pandemic, health officials agreed to issue a vaccine to the public.

Fifty-seven years later, in 1976, approximately two hundred soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, had contracted the swine virus through person-to-person contact. It was confirmed that these soldiers were never in contact with pigs, much like the Spanish flu strain. Worried about a wide-spread pandemic, health officials agreed to issue a vaccine to the public.

In order to mass produce the vaccine, researchers at the Center for Disease Control decided to replicate the disease in Chickens, however, the swine flu had a difficult time infecting chicken eggs. When a vaccine was created and went into testing mode, researchers found it didn't protect children. Rather predictably, several elderly people had died within hours of receiving the new flu vaccine.

Insurance companies, with the small-pox vaccine debacle freshly in their minds, decided that the swine flu vaccine was too risky to back up, and therefore would not insure pharmaceutical companies, as the risk of death was too great.

Lastly, and a risk that the CDC confirms is still true today, the shot used to protect people from swine flu has an increased risk for Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare and quickly-paralyzing disease that is linked to other vaccinations and medications.

So, with the latest swine flu pandemic on our door steps, what can we do to protect ourselves? First, limit your travel to the United States, or don't travel at all - especially if you live in states that border Mexico. Next, practice good hygiene by washing your hands frequently, and especially after using the bathroom. Anti-bacterial soaps aren't necessary, as the swine flu is a virus, not a bacterial infection. Just wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least thirty seconds.

What may seem like inaction by the government and Center for Disease Control, might actually help us in the end by keeping away needless deaths thanks to rushed and imperfect vaccines.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-1007.htm

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html