"We have a bird flu plan, but will it work?"

Read the full article by Debora Mackenzie in the New Scientist.

"Recent weeks have seen a startling shift in attitudes, with governments taking the threat far more seriously. Last week, the US published a pandemic plan that pledges $7.1 billion, mainly for vaccines and drugs. For the first time the meeting in Geneva includes financial institutions such as the World Bank, which plans a global pandemic fund in 2006.

"Further good news has also emerged from a little-publicised meeting in Geneva last week. Vaccine companies and national authorities agreed to test low-dose vaccines against the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The lower the dose, the more vaccine doses can be produced quickly. Until now, all vaccine trials in humans planned to use 7.5 micrograms or more of viral protein, despite research in Germany in 2004 showing that 2 micrograms could work just as well.

"The results of the trials, now starting in the US, Australia, Japan and Canada, and the optimum dosage, will be known in about six months' time, says Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. If 2-microgram doses are effective, existing vaccine factories may be capable of producing enough for almost everyone.

"But a number of critical ifs and buts remain. For instance, Europe and the US cannot yet agree on how to license low-dose vaccines that must also include an immune booster called an adjuvant."