Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The makers of medicines can not start production of a vaccine against swine flu by mid-July, several weeks after the initial forecasts, acknowledged on Tuesday the World Health Organization.
That means it will take several months before they can produce a new vaccine against the influenza virus called H1N1 WHO.
According to experts on vaccines convened last week by WHO, the swine flu virus does not develop quickly in the laboratory, making it difficult to obtain the crucial ingredient of the vaccine, "the collection of seed virus.
Experts told the WHO influenza vaccine manufacturers that would not be ready to produce a vaccine against swine flu at least until mid-July, the WHO reported on Tuesday. Previously, it was estimated that production would begin in late May.
Moreover, experts have found no evidence that flu shots offer no protection against common variant swine.
The revelation that the process is more difficult than anticipated specialists was published while the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the head of WHO Margaret Chan met with representatives of 30 pharmaceutical companies.
Health officials around the world this week to attend the annual meeting of WHO, where he discussed the outbreak of swine flu that has infected 9830 people in over 40 countries and caused 79 deaths.
Specialists estimated that vaccination in the best case scenario, could produce about 5000 million doses of swine flu vaccine a year after production began on a large scale.
In this case, the UN would have up to 400 million doses for poor countries. The rest would go to rich countries that have already signed contracts for vaccine only becomes available.
Mass production of a vaccine against the pandemic poses a risk as the capacity to diminish the production of vaccine against seasonal flu, which kills up to half a million people per year. Some experts questioned whether the world really need a vaccine for a scourge which so far seems mild.
