ABC News The World Health Organization announced Monday that it has launched an initiative to help accelerate the development of a human bird flu vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
The project, which will be led by Argentinian pharmaceutical company Sinergium Biotech, will aim to identify vaccine candidates for manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries, the WHO said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has previously said the risk of bird flu, also known as avian influenza, to the general public is low and there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Federal health officials have also prepared millions of vials of an available non-mRNA bird flu vaccine as a precautionary measure, just in case it becomes necessary. mRNA technology is the same type that was used in the development of COVID vaccines. Most vaccines use a weakened or inactive virus to stimulate an immune response, but mRNA vaccines teach the body how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response and fight off an infection.
Researchers can often design mRNA vaccines more quickly than they can produce the live or weakened pathogens needed for a traditional vaccine.