The flu kills more than 36-thousand people each year. Last year a new strain of influenza killed thousand more. Experts say our best defense against these flu pandemics is a fragile chicken egg. Growing a vaccine in an egg is certainly effective but scientists have spent years searching for a more reliable option. Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center recently conducted a four month study and believe they may have found one.

"I knew one of them would bring it home," said Heather Hare of Rochester.

With two kids in the house avoiding the flu isn't easy. That's something Hare learned the hard way in June of 2009. Her oldest daughter Anna came down with the H1N1 Virus.

"She got really sick. But there wasn't a vaccine at that point,” Hare said.

When a second wave of the virus hit that fall Hare got sick herself.

"And I was so nervous that my younger daughter was going to get too sick because she was kind of at that age where it was a big risk," Hare recalled.

The H1N1 vaccine wasn't readily available in Upstate New York until November, about a month too late.

"If we had that vaccine available just four or five weeks earlier it could have made an enormous difference," said Dr. John Treanor.

Treanor is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester. He said the current method of growing a vaccine in a chicken egg takes too long.

"With the current strategy that we use, we have to decide what strains are going to be in the vaccine by February in order to have the vaccine by September," Treanor said.

There is an alternative, a flu vaccine grown entirely in bacteria. Treanor lead a four month study testing the experimental vaccine in people. The study, which was published in the Dec. 6 issue of the journal Vaccine, used 128 healthy people ages 18 to 49. The vaccine, which is free of bacteria itself, is made by New Jersey-based VaxInnate Inc., which funded the study. It not only worked, but Treanor said this version of the flu shot has the potential for two major advantages over the current vaccine.

"One, the vaccine could be more effective because it could generate a better immune response. And two, the vaccine would be more widely available, or available earlier in the season,” said Treanor.

That could have helped heather avoid days of missed work, a high fever and a lot of worry.

"It was really tough, and I wish that they had the vaccine earlier because I am a true believer in the flu vaccine now," Hare added.

There were four confirmed deaths in Monroe County that sited H1N1 as a contributing factor. And while flu activity in the Rochester area is still very low, flu clinics are already being held through out the state. The vaccine is currently in ample supply

Treanor the new vaccine still needs several more years of study before it would be ready for wide-scale production. The study was funded by the New Jersey Based company that developed the vaccine.