根据将发表在8月号的《普通病毒学杂志》（Journal of General Virology）上的一项研究，科学家发现了禽流感如何适应人类患者，这为监视这种疾病和预防一场禽流感大流行提供了一种新方法。高致病性H5N1 禽流感病毒已经传播到了3个大陆的至少45个国家。尽管具有传播能力，它不能有效地在人与人之间传播。这表明它尚未完全适应它的新宿主，也就是人类。然而，这项新的研究揭示出了这种病毒的一些可能会导致一场禽流感大流行的突变。
附上6月份发在NEJM的一篇关于H5禽流感灭活疫苗的临床报道，很有启发意义
New England Journal of Medicine Volume 358:2573-2584 June 12, 2008 Number 24
A Clinical Trial of a Whole-Virus H5N1 Vaccine Derived from Cell Culture
Hartmut J. Ehrlich, M.D., Markus Müller, M.D., et al
Background Widespread infections of avian species with avian influenza H5N1 virus and its limited spread to humans suggest that the virus has the potential to cause a human influenza pandemic. An urgent need exists for an H5N1 vaccine that is effective against divergent strains of H5N1 virus.
Methods In a randomized, dose-escalation, phase 1 and 2 study involving six subgroups, we investigated the safety of an H5N1 whole-virus vaccine produced on Vero cell cultures and determined its ability to induce antibodies capable of neutralizing various H5N1 strains. In two visits 21 days apart, 275 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 45 years received two doses of vaccine that each contained 3.75 µg, 7.5 µg, 15 µg, or 30 µg of hemagglutinin antigen with alum adjuvant or 7.5 µg or 15 µg of hemagglutinin antigen without adjuvant. Serologic analysis was performed at baseline and on days 21 and 42.
Results The vaccine induced a neutralizing immune response not only against the clade 1 (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) virus strain but also against the clade 2 and 3 strains. The use of adjuvants did not improve the antibody response. Maximum responses to the vaccine strain were obtained with formulations containing 7.5 µg and 15 µg of hemagglutinin antigen without adjuvant. Mild pain at the injection site (in 9 to 27% of subjects) and headache (in 6 to 31% of subjects) were the most common adverse events identified for all vaccine formulations.
Conclusions A two-dose vaccine regimen of either 7.5 µg or 15 µg of hemagglutinin antigen without adjuvant induced neutralizing antibodies against diverse H5N1 virus strains in a high percentage of subjects, suggesting that this may be a useful H5N1 vaccine. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00349141 [ClinicalTrials.gov] .)