Link to FULL articleFlu vaccine goes five times further
A fifth of the usual dose of flu vaccine can elicit just as much protection against influenza as the usual jab as long as it is put into skin and not into muscle, two separate studies have found.
That could make flu vaccine go five times farther in an emergency. The discovery would have been even more helpful, had it been made earlier. It might then have been possible to implement a new vaccine delivery scheme for the US this winter, as recent manufacturing problems have cut the supply of flu vaccine to about half the level of demand.
If the amount of virus needed for one vaccination can be cut fivefold, then the world?s current production capacity would take less than a year to produce enough vaccine for the entire population once full-scale production got under way, instead of over four years.
At least until vaccine makers scale back the production facilities to match regular demand.