BETHESDA, Md.
(AP) -- Forget being sneezed on: Government scientists are deliberately
giving dozens of volunteers the flu by squirting the live virus
straight up their noses.
It may sound bizarre,
but the rare type of research is a step in the quest for better flu
vaccines. It turns out that how the body fends off influenza remains
something of a mystery.
"Vaccines are working,
but we could do better," said Dr. Matthew Memoli of the National
Institutes of Health, who is leading the study that aims to infect up to
100 adults over the next year.
Wait a minute:
Flu is sweeping the country, so why not just study the already sick?
That wouldn't let scientists measure how the immune system reacts
through each step of infection, starting with that first exposure to the
virus.
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