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In 1997 shrimp became endangered and it was not only wild shrimp, but also the type that were raised on shrimp farms. The reason for this was a virus from Asia that attack shrimp but not humans. The virus was called white spot syndrome virus. There was to be a strange twist to this story of shrimp that were almost wiped out. The white spots that denoted the disease began to show up everywhere in the ocean. At the time it was believed that these white spots might even be floating in the water themselves. Then a clue was found that indicated that this virus was around for at least ten years in the area. It was believed at the time that these sea creatures didn't have an immune system, but we found out later that theirs just doesn't work like ours. The white spot virus caused us to do much more research into viruses and as a result many new drugs were created for humans that have benefited humanity. One of the major problems with a virus is that it can mutate so quickly that this can happen before a cure is found for the original form of the virus. This is why scientists are so worried about the Asian Bird Flu. They are not so worried about it in it's present form, what they worry about is a mutation that could occur that would allow the virus to spread it from human to human.

Since this hasn't happened yet, an anti flu shot can't easily be developed. But there is hope, some scientists say that we already have the drugs to fight this type of epidemic. Not everyone agrees with this idea however. There are problems trying to create an antiviral shot to immunize us against the bird flue. One problem is that this virus kills birds and their eggs. The anti virus is developed in chicken eggs. If chickens die there will be less or no eggs to develop the anti viral shot in. The second problem is that it takes about six months to ramp up production and even at it's peak there will be only enough shots to treat about one billion people at the most. This leaves over 5 billion people that won't get a treatment. This is just not satisfactory. There are alternatives however, but they have not received full trials yet. DNA based shots may fill the bill. The way they work is that a loop of DNA triggers the body's immune system into thinking that it is being attacked by the virus and it reacts to protect itself. The great thing about this type of vaccine is that instead of taking 6 months or more to develop, it can be developed in about 2-3 weeks.

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The president of the U.S. has committed a total of 7.1 billion dollars for vaccine development. This proves that the U.S. government is taking this problem very seriously. A new way to develop vaccine is being looked into. This entails using monkey kidney cells to develop vaccine in, rather than eggs. This would eliminate having to worry about eggs not being available to develop a vaccine in. The vaccine grown this way would be a new genetic form. There are many different problems associated with vaccine development. One problem is developing the vaccine. Another problem is scaling the production up enough to get the amount of vaccine that you need.

Companies do not like to make vaccine. Vaccine is a low profit product that carries a lot of liability. To get companies to do this, concessions have to be made. One concession might be a guaranteed purchase amount, another concession is to hold the companies free from or limit liability. Under the current set up, the maxim amount of vaccine that could be produced is about 75 million shots and this is for the entire world. Even with this great influx of government money, the local infrastructure has to be build up to enable places to be set up for these massive immunization tasks. That will take much more money.

The problem with the DNA vaccine is that it takes a shot of one milligram to work. That is an awful lot of vaccine to pump into the human body. But there is hope on the horizon. A company has announced that they have figured out how to get the same results using a 1/100 milligram shot. Doctors realize that the perfect vaccine would be one that would destroy any type of virus, not just one particular type and they are working toward this goal, but don't expect any break through soon, it is a very tough task.

One of the most important things that can be done now is full international cooperation. So far almost all of the cases that have effected humans were from birds infecting humans. There are only some very rare cases where human contact may have caused the disease. We all have to monitor this and if there is a change, the world community must know so that vaccines can be produced. People that get this disease from human to human contact must be examined to find out why. This disease may never mutate into a human disease but we have to be prepared in case it does, because if it does, it will become a deadly pandemic.