By Ben Harder
Mass vaccination should be the linchpin of the U.S. response to an influenza pandemic, new computer simulations suggest. Other measures, including treating people with antiviral drugs, closing schools, and restricting travel, could slow the spread of the virus but would be unlikely to halt an outbreak of a highly contagious flu, say the government-funded researchers who conducted the simulations.
In another development, doctors announced last week that, for the first time, an experimental vaccine appears to protect some people against the H5N1 avian flu (SN: 9/10/05, p. 171: When Flu Flies the Coop). Other vaccines are undergoing tests against that lethal virus, which currently doesn’t spread among people. But scientists predict that the avian-flu virus could someday give rise to a fast-spreading strain against which people would have less immunity than they do to a typical winter flu.