A SWINE flu vaccine is almost within grasp now that a strain of the flu has been produced in laboratories.

The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), which is part of the Health Protection Agency, has created a strain of the virus that is suitable for vaccine manufacture and is distributing it to the pharmaceutical industry and other flu laboratories.

So far Warrington has escaped any cases of swine flu, but the number of people in the UK and the rest of the world with the virus is growing by the day.

A handful of laboratories that belong to a WHO collaborative network, which includes NIBSC, have been racing to produce a strain of virus suitable for manufacturing vaccine.

Without suitable starting strains vaccine production on a global scale cannot begin.

NIBSC used reverse genetics to build the virus, which involved combining H1N1 and other laboratory strains.

Dr Stephen Inglis, Director of NIBSC, said: “Our scientists have been working round the clock to develop a vaccine candidate since we received the first swine flu isolate from the USA at the beginning of May and I am delighted that they have been successful so quickly.

“The strain is now available for supply to vaccine manufacturers so that they can begin the first steps in the vaccine production process, and to other flu laboratories around the world for research.”

Health professionals expect swine flu, or H1N1, to boom in early winter as it combines with seasonal flu.

The production of a vaccine that can protect against the virus would help keep it at bay.