Michal Ben-Attar and Charles Osgood
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A PROMISING VACCINE FOR HEPATITIS B.
The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by Barbasol Shaving Cream. Start your day with Barbasol - America's leader for a close, comfortable shave. Close Shave, America. Close Shave, Barbasol. This is Charles Osgood.
Hepatitis B is a disease that kills about 600,000 people a year around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
Now, an Israeli drug company has developed a new, third-generation vaccine they say is not merely a treatment for the illness - but can kill the Hepatitis B virus, once and for all.
The story after this...
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There have been two other Hepatitis B vaccines.
The second contained a protein that made it look enough like the virus itself, to sometimes fool that virus itself into not attacking it.
These two vaccines have been around for a couple of decades.
But this new, third-generation vaccine - the one by this Israeli firm SciVac - contains all three of the virus' proteins, and they say fools it almost 100 percent of the time.
It wins not only the battle, says SciVac's CEO Michal Ben Attar - but the war...
SOT - Michal Ben Attar, CEO of SciVac
"No more people need to die from this disease. We can eradicate this disease like vaccines did to smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus. You cannot find these diseases in the world anymore. And I believe that this vaccine can do it to Hepatitis B." (:16)
The FDA has yet to approve the new vaccine, although it is already used in those parts of the world where Hepatitis B is most prevalent.
SOT - Michal Ben Attar
"Currently, we are selling mainly in Africa and Asia, trying to save countless lives. Once we will achieve the FDA approval, it will spread all over the world. I believe this is the solution for the world. And I believe that in a few years, this will be the only vaccine sold in the world." (:17)
There are about 400 million people now worldwide who are carrying the Hepatitis B virus.
They're the ones most at risk of developing the disease - and the ones who need to be reached first.
The Osgood File. I'll see you on the television come Sunday Morning on CBS. This is Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.