Currently no vaccine is available to protect humans against the Avian or "Bird Flu" virus that is being seen in Asia and Europe.

Because the bird flu is such a deadly virus there are currently several companies that have been working on a bird flu vaccine. One issue they're up against--- is that the virus mutates, into different strands called clads. Infection Control Manager Nancy Hansen explains, "Clad 1 is the one that we saw in Vietnam in 2003 and so (companies) have both developed a vaccine that has been in trials, and then shown to be effective against that clad."

Nancy says that since the development of that vaccine, a clad 2 strand of the bird flu virus has developed. "And that has come out of Indonesia more recently and that one, another company called Norovax, which is a biopharmaceutical research company has developed a vaccine and is going into clinical trials as we speak, so we do have something in the works for that strain as well."

Nancy also says that it was suspected that human-to-human spread of the bird flu virus occured in thailand and indonesia, however those reports were unsubstantiated. But it is important to remember that viruses have the ability to change and it's still possible that human to human contact can occur. "Once the bird flu infects the human population, what can happen is the virus can mutate and become pathogenic to humans and especially if it has the chance to meet up with the regular seasonal flu and share genetic material, and then it becomes such that it can transmit from human to human."

The good news is that scientists are currently working on a vaccine that they hope will be effective should the bird flu eventually strike our country. In the meantime you can help stay healthy by getting your annual flu shot.

And the time to get your seasonal flu shot is coming up - the best time to get it is in October and November.