UMd. to participate in swine flu vaccine study

The University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore has been chosen by the National Institutes of Health to begin clinical trials of the H1N1 flu vaccine. The clinical trial will begin in August and enroll as many as 1,000 healthy adults and children at 10 centers nationwide.

Participants in five age groups will receive two doses three weeks apart. The response after the first dose will be compared to the response after the second.

The trial also will evaluate two strengths of the vaccine to determine how much is needed to prompt an immune response most likely to protect against the swine flu.

To become a volunteer, call 410-706-6156.

Earlier this month, federal officials at a Flu Summit at NIH said if successful, vaccines could be rolled out by mid-October.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he believed an effective vaccine against swine flu could be developed.

Drug company officials in Australia Wednesday announced the world's first human trials of a vaccine for the swine flu, which has so far killed more than 700 worldwide.

All five U.S. providers of flu vaccine - including Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, Swiss-based Novartis AG and maker of the only nasal-spray vaccine, Maryland-based MedImmune - also will conduct their own studies in several thousand more volunteers. Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration will review their testing plans.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore is the only NIH study site in the mid-Atlantic.

The NIH's main study sites:

• University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
• University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
• Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.
• Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
• Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati.
• Emory University, Atlanta.
• Group Health Cooperative, Seattle.
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., will partner with two sites for part of the research.

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