The common flu is something that we all suffer at some point, often on an annual basis.
But some strains of influenza can do more than put you in bed for four or five days, some influenza variants are killers.
A flu epidemic in 1918 wiped out one in four of the entire population of the city of London.
Now researchers at Japans Saitama Medical University believe that they may have found a new vaccine capable of fighting influenza; even the dangerous fast mutating variations.
Although it is still early days, they say that their research is extremely promising.
As it stands at the moment each year brings a new version of the flu, and each year researchers have to develop a new vaccine variant to cope with the changes within the new version.
The problem with the ever-changing influenza is in very basic terms, its shape. Each year it changes its shape slightly which means that the vaccine a longer fits last year’s shape.
It is hoped that the new vaccine, which contains an artificial protein, will be able to attach its self to any type of influenza a matter what strain or mutation it may be, because it will be adaptable to the latest influenza shape.
