Vaccine created from 1918 Spanish flu may protect against all strains, study finds

A universal vaccine created from the 1918 Spanish flu virus protects against a deadly strain of bird flu, a study has found. Scientists said the product could be available to people in just five years after promising trials on animals. The current annual flu vaccination programme requires an updated jab to match that year’s dominant strain because the virus mutates so frequently that previous vaccines become ineffective. Scientists built their “one and done” flu jab by repurposing research on tuberculosis and HIV, two infections that also mutate significantly and constantly,...