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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1982)
Battalion/Page 7 November 11, 1982 local A&M flu study in final stage s year, Had! t ) read from ik by Jennifer Carr Battalion Staff | A study in progress here is led to show Jt ne 0 f t } ie f lna i steps in testing a site and ho»m ew f] u vaccine before it is “• Hpproved, virologist Dr. John id 68 trudi |1-Quar'cs says, m the site ol Thestudy measures the corn- stack Trucll!M iaratlve e “ ectlveness a vacci- 0 small lop,l| ati0 " administered through . Bose drops and the same vacci- bonfire 1 “ atlon administered through in- I f i lpoculation. Once testing is com- on ire uB] etec y vaccine will go trough a series of approvals |that will take three to five years, ornutories In Quarles, who is the coordina- ic fund-driwBo r of the Texas A&M study, helped filliiBaid he hopes the study — admi- tributions, wi4istered through the Baylor ause of thefiollege of Medicine’s Influenza ■tesearch Center—will show the Rose drops are more effective Than the innoculations in pre- lenting the flu virus. “We are testing the nose drop accine to see if it’s better than 1 j ihe shots,” Quarles said. I r n The theory behind increased effectiveness for the nose-drop ■orm of the vaccination is that I [he nose, mouth and throat are ne places where the flu virus is jontracted and grows. Adminis- - c jeringthe vaccination directly to iblers. RpQjg areas could then increase nes MicheneRjg amoun t 0 f antibodies — dstorical ™Rrganisms that fight the virus — ‘Centennial, ft that area _ been bannft Another advantage to nose ;deploredc(iiB r0 p S> tyhid) ultimately would risresidinpft crease t heir effectiveness, is ;searchesal.ft e possibility that more people exas. in take the vaccination since :e law, tilt hey won’t have to receive a shot, "d can com fhe nose drop form of the vac- ;ts recoramts ine also can be manufactured ner of Edna acre quickly than the shot mm, whoiss orm. nthisrecoM Texas A&M students have r. The boarii een used to test the vaccine he texts Sad hree times in the past, Quarles aid, but this is the first time the )k adoption) os e vaccine has been compared exas are pan ^ ^ vacc j ne administered in t to publish hotform ites patterir j 0 stu dy entirely bases afterH an( j 0ITlj g^ student answers California, hesamequestions, gives a blood ample and receives both a shot nd nose drops, one or both of ;hich are placebos. Quarles said 617 students are tardcipating in the flu study t his ” ear. Approximately one-third fthe students received the vac- ine through innoculation, one- liird received the vaccine in nose drops and the remainder of the group, which acts as a con trol, received placebos. The study is double-blind, which means the students and the doctors treating them do not know who received the vaccina tion and who was given a place bo. But the person who adminis-1 ters the vaccinations keeps re cords. The double-blind method prevents bias from the doctor and student during treatment, Quarles said. At the end of the study, the students are told which form of the vaccine they received, he said. “Actually, we are aware of which form of the vaccine the student received,” Quarles said, “but we put away the forms and don’t consider it, although we can break the code if we need to.” The studies are not a serious risk to students and may even help them, Quarles said, be cause the vaccines could prevent them from getting the flu. Stu dents who catch the flu while participating in the study prob ably would nave caught it any way. In the three weeks since the vaccine was administered, none of the participants has gotten the flu. Students receive $5 each time they give a blood sample and $2 each week they report to the A.P. Beutal Health Center, Quarles said. Each student probably will make about $60 from the study. The flu season runs from January through spring break and the study runs from mid-October through spring break, Quarles said. Students are not paid for get ting the flu, Quarles said. The only study where students were paid for checking into the health center when they were ill was in an interferon study conducted two years ago, he said. Quarles said many students have participated in more than one study, which gives him a chance to monitor the results over a period of years, rather than just for one flu season. In cases where study results might be biased by students who have received a vaccination in a pre vious study, students are screened to prevent their parti cipation. He estimated that of approxi- Rick Chamblin, a second-year graduate student in veterinary microbiology and immuniology from College Station, Staff photo by Irene Mees receives flu immunization drops from Dr. John M. Quarles in the old Creamery Building. mately 3,000 students screened for this study, 800 to 1,000 were rejected because they had parti cipated in a previous study. A student might also be rejected for the study if he has had the flu recently and already has built up antibodies. The flu studies are conducted at Texas A&M because it is rela tively close to Baylor Medical School, which does the flu re search, and because Quarles was interested in the research and developed the testing proce dure. The studies begin when Quarles came to Texas A&M almost seven years ago. Texas A&M also is ideal be cause it has a large population with good communication, S uarles said. The health center so facilitates research because it serves as a focal point for the study. Quarles said most students participate in the studies be cause they are interested in helping with the research, rather than just for the money. He said some students who ori ginally participated in the stu dies now help administer them. Each study must be consi dered by three committees be fore it can be administered on campus. Human research com mittees from the National Insti tute of Health and from Baylor and Texas A&M are composed of both doctors and laymen who must approve each study. Any changes made in the study must then be approved by all three committees. Only vaccines and drugs that have been tested in controlled situations are administered in the studies, Quarles said. Field studies such as this one are the final phase of testing, and are used to see how the test drugs or vaccines work in natural situa tions. They usually are the end re sults of 15 to 20 years of govern ment safety-testing and would not be administered if resear chers weren’t reasonably sure they would work. The vaccine now being tested has about a 60 to 80 percent suc cess rate in the field. Quarles said he hopes to increase this rate by the use of nose drops and by giving boosters four weeks af ter the initial dose. A 75 percent success rate is considered good, he said. Vaccinations prevent disease by allowing a small amount of the virus’ antigen, a protein that stimulates the production of antibodies, into the system. If people are exposed to the same disease later, they will already have the antibodies they need to kill the virus. TOCO BEIili GREAT TACO THEFT Make a steal with unlimited quantities of 39C tacos on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12 — 13. Bring these coupons; otherwise you'll get caught. This coupon good for 39C TACOS QUANTITIES UNLIMITED Offer good Nov. 12. 13 11 A.M. - 11 PM. This coupon good for 39C TACOS QUANTITIES UNLIMITED Offer good Nov. 12. 13 1 I A.M. - 1 1 PM Not good wit* any other offer. This coupon good for 39C TACOS QUANTITIES UNLIMITED IHGOABEIili Offer good Nov. 12. 13 I 1 AM. - 1 1 PM GOOD ONLY AT ARCHIE’S TACO BELLS. 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