# 1520
Over the next three days, and probably for a week or more thereafter, I expect we'll hear a good bit coming out of Thailand. A veritable Who's Who of bird flu scientists are meeting in Bangkok this week, convening for the Bangkok International Conference on Avian Influenza 2008 : Integration from Knowledge to Control
First scheduled on the dais this morning (Bangkok Time) was the dean of Virology, Prof. Robert G. Webster. His subject: H5N1 influenza: Continuing evolution and spread
Following him, Prof Albert Osterhaus on Development of Pandemic Influenza Vaccines.
The gist of Professor Osterhaus's comments are just hitting the newswires via Reuters.
Experts urge stockpiling of flu vaccine additives
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Leading infectious disease experts called on Wednesday for the separate stockpiling of additives, or adjuvants, to help boost the effectiveness of vaccines to fight the next flu pandemic.
Experts have warned for years that a flu pandemic is long overdue and scientists at a conference in Bangkok said the H5N1 bird flu virus remained a key candidate, but another avian influenza virus could unleash such a catastrophe.
Albert Osterhaus, a microbiologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said stockpiling adjuvants might well be the solution if another virus ended up stealing the show.
"There's a lot of discussion to vaccinate people against H5N1 with adjuvanted vaccines. We might do that, but it's very expensive and it might well be that the pandemic outbreak may not be caused by H5N1 but by H7, H9 or H2" viruses, he said.
Vaccines are created with antigens, or substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body.
But because there will not be enough antigen to go around in a pandemic, experts have been trying to address that problem by using boosters, like adjuvants.
Osterhaus said adjuvants should be stockpiled separately from antigens.
"Adjuvants can be stockpiled and H5 antigen as well. So if the pandemic is going to be H5N1, you just mix them and you get a vaccine," he said.
"If not, you rapidly produce the antigen and add it together with the adjuvant."
Other speakers at the three-day conference called for a wider approach to pandemic preparedness, but they stressed that H5N1 was likely to be the most lethal candidate.(Editing by Darren Schuettler)
Other speakers scheduled for today (Note: It is already evening in Bangkok as I write this) include:
Plenary lecture by Prof. Malik Peiris
Subject : -to be announced-
11.40-12.10
Plenary lecture by Prof. Yong Poovorawan
Subject : -to be announced-
12.10-13.30
Track I : Animal virus sequencing and epidemiology
13.30-14.00
Plenary lecture by Prof. Lei Fumin
Subject : Protect wild birds and their wetland environments from the current HPAI H5N1 prevalence
14.00-14.30
Invited lecture by Dr. Scott H. Newman
Subject : The truths about HPAI in wild birds
14.30-14.50
Correlation of human pathology of H5N1 infection with exvivo models
Dr.John M. Nicholls, The University of HongKong, China
14.50-15.10
Subject : -to be announced-
Dr. Mongkol Uiprasertkul, Mahidol University, Thailand
