In the making

A universal drug to work against all strains of flu virus

influenza vaccine makers are often flummoxed by the changing nature of the virus. The makers need to keep producing new vaccines because the virus keeps mutating into new strains. World Health Organisation estimates that about 250,000 people die from influenza every year. A team of researchers tried to rework the basics of the influenza vaccine.

A vaccine basically contains the antigens from the pathogen it protects against. In some cases, it is the pathogen in a weak or deactivated form. The vaccine activates the body