Soon, no H1N1 patient need fear for life

Antibody shots to fight virus under development

SWINE flu deaths may become a thing of the past in the city if a project undertaken by the Serum Institute of India (SII) is successful.
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SII has embarked on research to develop antibodies that can be injected into swine flu patients. The envisioned antibodies will build immunity against the virus and fight the infection, reducing its severity.

Dr Rajeev Dhere, senior director (vaccines), SII, said the technology was currently available in a few foreign countries for other diseases like asthma, but not flu.
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"It's the first attempt at developing this technology in India," he said. "While we are coming up with a preventive H1N1 vaccine, we also thought of a therapy for people infected with the virus."

He said the injection would have to be taken along with other medicines used to treat the H1N1 infection. "The combination of two therapies could give patients a very good shot at fighting the virus," Dhere said.

But Dhere added that it was difficult to say when the injections would be available in the market. The SII is also developing two types of preventive H1N1 vaccines a nasal and an injection-based one.
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The trials for the nasal vaccine have been successful and SII is in the process of applying for a licence to mass produce it.

235
Number of H1N1 deaths in city