Updated
Researchers in Newcastle are doing their bit to help protect the world against a potentially deadly outbreak of the bird flu virus.
Only about 600 people worldwide are known to have had the virus but it carries a mortality rate of three in five.
That has got the United States government concerned and it is funding a global vaccine project being trialled in humans.
Newcastle's Hunter Clinical Research is one of the centre that has been chosen to take part.
It is looking for volunteers to undergo human trials of an H5N1 vaccine which could be stockpiled in readiness for a global pandemic.
Principal researcher, Dr Marc Russo, says the vaccine trial is important, despite there being no imminent threat from bird flu.
"The insurance policy is that should there be a mutation in the virus, and the virus does undergo regular mutation," he said.
"If it does mutate and we get human to human transmission then we would be looking at millions of infections and potentially a very large number of deaths."
Researchers are hoping to find out the smallest dose of the vaccine needed for human protection.
They hope to have the results within two years.
