World first trial for hep B vaccine

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World first trial for hep B vaccine

From: AAP

February 17, 2006

A WORLD first trial of a new hepatitis B vaccine is to be conducted at Adelaide's Flinders Medical Centre.The vaccine has been developed at the hospital and includes a special agent or booster taken from a natural sugar in dahlia flowers. Flinders Medical Centre clinician Nikolai Petrovsky said the vaccine was considered safer and more effective than other existing vaccines. "It is designed to encourage the immune system to attack and destroy the hepatitis infection more effectively," he said. "This new vaccine should be of major benefit to people who respond poorly to current hepatitis B vaccines, including people with immunodeficiency, diabetes, the elderly and people with kidney disease. "It may ultimately lead to the world's first cure for chronic hepatitis B infection."

About two billion people worldwide have been infected with hepatitis B at some stage and 350 people are believed to be chronic carriers of the virus.

Each year, at least one million people worldwide die from liver failure as a result of hepatitis B, which can also lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18177043-1246,00.html