Robert Belshe Quotes (8 Quotes)

Recently, some strains of bird flu viruses have infected people in Asia. There is concern these new strains could cause a pandemic, but they are not infecting people in the United States at this time. Rather than wait for that possibility to occur, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is testing avian influenza vaccines.

If that's true, we still have time to monitor the key genetic changes that would enable (the H5N1 virus) to spread in humans.

That's not something we thought was possible.

It takes a fair amount of restraint using two people to hold down a 3-year-old and give 'em an injection. It's such an easier vaccine to deliver in children. The babies aren't crying. The moms leave our office happy.

The number of humans infected by other people is, if not zero, very close to zero.

Persons who live in households who have people with immunosuppressive conditions or taking drugs for cancer, chemotherapy for example, or households who have an infant less than 1 year of age, these kinds of persons should not take smallpox vaccine,

Preventing influenza in children, we think, will reduce influenza in our society.

It gives us some reassurance that by continuing to monitor the current virus in birds, we can get a sense as to when it'll be an efficient virus. We may have some time to develop new vaccines and better therapies.