From The American Council on Science and Health
June 12, 2018
The reason there is no universal flu vaccine is because the influenza virus constantly changes. That’s why we get jabbed with a new vaccine every season; the vaccine from the previous year is unlikely to work against the strains of flu circulating this year.
The hunt for a universal influenza vaccine is based on targeting parts of the virus that don’t change. In theory, antibodies generated against these portions of the virus should confer protection against all influenza viruses. Whoever develops and successfully demonstrates such a vaccine should win a Nobel Prize.
But this may not be the only strategy for the creation of universal vaccines. Indeed, a team of researchers who are concerned by mosquito-borne illnesses has described a very clever idea for the development of universal vaccines in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.