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With flu season on the way, the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center is busy. This fall, researchers are testing an investigational flu vaccine that could eventually help develop a universal influenza vaccine.

The study, which is currently enrolling healthy adults ages 18 to 70, will test the safety of and response to the vaccine. It requires two vaccine visits lasting about four hours each, after which participants will be asked to keep a diary for a week to record their body temperature and any changes or symptoms.

They will report back to NIH’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, periodically, checking in about 10 more times over 12 months to give blood samples and/or nose and throat swabs.

“We’re trying to develop a vaccine that will cover more influenza flu strains than are currently covered in seasonal vaccines,” said Grace Chen, the study’s principal investigator and deputy chief of the Clinical Trials Program at the Vaccine Research Center.

The investigational vaccine, which has been approved for research, is “different from what’s typically in the seasonal influenza vaccine,” Chen said. “It’s been safe and well tolerated so far.”

Flu shots are an effective way to protect health, particularly if you are over 65. Doctors encourage that age group to get a high-dose flu shot called Fluzone, which contains about four times the amount of antigens as a normal flu shot.

That precaution is due to the danger of hospitalization — and even death — as a result of flu complications in older adults, whose immune systems have weakened over the years.

“During most seasons, people 65 years and older bear the greatest burden of severe flu disease” according to the Centers for Disease Control. “In recent years, for example, it’s estimated that between about 70 and 90 percent of seasonal flu-related deaths have occurred in people 65 years and older.”

You’re not eligible to participate in the clinical trial if you have asthma, diabetes or some other chronic medical conditions.

Compensation ranges from $1,875 to $2,600. For more information or to volunteer, call (301) 451-8715 or email vaccines@nih.gov. Mention NIH study #19-I-0032.