Local doctor 'very optimistic' about universal, multi-year flu vaccination

BOSTON — Temperatures are falling and with it, health officials are urging people to get their flu shot.

Last season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated just 45% of adults in the United States got an annual flu shot. What if all of those yearly flu shots could get wrapped up into one vaccination that would be effective for multiple years?

That is the dream of Dr. Mahmoud Nasr of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

He and a team of researchers are working on a flu vaccination that would essentially strip the virus of its most formidable defense by stripping off the top part or the "head" of its mushroom-like structure.

"The head changes every year. And the head is the target for the current seasonal vaccine," said Nasr.

That's why last year's flu vaccination won't work for the flu that's around this year. The head of the virus mutates, but the stalk of the virus does not.

Nasr and his team are working to isolate the stalk into a form that will encourage the production of antibodies against it that would thus be effective against all strains of the flu virus.

Nasr's inspiration for the project is one of his daughter's who got the flu shot last year but came down with the flu anyway. That's not uncommon.

The CDC says that even in the best years flu shots reduce the risk of getting the flu not by 100%, but more like 40-60% and that's because flu vaccinations are formulated year after year based on an educated guess of likely infectious strains.

This week, Nasr will learn whether his proposal for a universal flu vaccine wins this year's intra-hospital Bright Futures prize, a monetary award which will help his group continue down the expensive road to vaccine development.

Nasr can't predict when a universal vaccine might be available, but he says the time to get it done, for the sake of public health, is now.

"Very easy to pass it on to the next generation. But I believe that it can be done. It's very challenging. But I am very hopeful," said Nasr.

Cox Media Group