Is There A Bird Flu Vaccine?

WebMD has received numerous questions about bird flu in recent weeks, Dr. Michael W. Smith answers one of the most common queries.

Answer: The standard flu shot will not protect against bird flu.

Currently, there is no bird flu vaccine available to the public. An experimental bird flu vaccine has been made.

It's important to understand that few people have caught bird flu. So far the people who have developed bird flu have been in direct contact with infected birds -- mostly in Asia -- with a few possible exceptions of person-to-person spread. However, at this point bird flu rarely, if ever, spreads from person to person. And until that happens, a widespread outbreak of bird flu among humans is highly unlikely.

The scary part is that people have little, if any, immunity against bird flu. Thus, when someone does catch it, they often get very sick and up to 50 percent have died.

The bird flu virus is constantly changing. This means that researchers have to closely watch bird flu; they may need to adjust the vaccine based on the bird flu strain that is likely to infect humans and spread from person to person.

Medications currently used to treat the standard flu have been shown to be at least somewhat effective against bird flu as well. And until a bird flu vaccine is available, these medications will be our first line of defense should bird flu gain the ability to effectively spread from person to person.

Sources: World Health Organization. CDC.

By Michael W. Smith, MD
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