Five years from now, there will be a lifetime flu vaccine

A new super vaccine, which helps prevent all lifelong influenza viruses, can be officially used in the next 5 years, following initial successful trials.

Scientists from the UK and Europe are preparing large-scale tests for new super vaccines. If everything goes as successfully as the initial human trials, the new vaccine will help stop the need for annual flu shots and can save thousands of lives every year.

Initial trials of new human vaccines have yielded positive results.(Artwork: PA)

The new vaccine is also effective in preventing very dangerous strains of influenza such as Spanish flu, even when they change. This ability will help eliminate the risk of a global epidemic like the flu epidemic that killed 100 million people in 1918.

Although tests have only been conducted on nearly 100 patients for many years, the results are the first positive signals. Professor John Oxford, an English flu expert and a key member of the research team, revealed that he and his colleagues are extremely excited about the prospect of the new vaccine. The project has received millions of dollars in research funding from the European Union.

According to the inventors, the vaccines available on the market work by identifying viruses by their cover. The downside of these older types of vaccines is that, if the virus changes the "jacket", the vaccine will no longer work. However, the new universal vaccine will work by attacking proteins hidden within the virus , which are common in dangerous flu strains.

The good news about the new vaccine came shortly after a new strain of bird flu re-emerged in China, and was reported to have spread from person to person in August. A 32-year-old woman was thought to have died after taking care of her father infected with H7N9.