Swine flu warning

The head of the health committee of the European Parliament, Jo Leinen, said on Saturday that the figure of one million A(HINI) cases was a "conservative estimate" and warned that no country in the 27-member bloc would be spared by the virus.

In an interview with German newspaper Neuen Osnabruecker Zeitung, Leinen said the bloc was no longer ruling out a sharp hike in the number of swine flu deaths. The virus has so far killed a total of around 40 people in EU nations Belgium, Britain, France, Hungary and Spain.

Brussels is trying to harmonize efforts, to better respond to the A(H1N1) virus which first surfaced in Mexico and has killed more than 800 people around the globe.

Germany and Italy plan to vaccinate roughly a third of their populations while Greece became the first European country to announce it was planning to immunize its entire population of 11 million.

Official slams slow vaccine production

But on Saturday, Leinen, a member of the German Social Democratic Party, criticized the slow pace of vaccine production in Europe. He said around 150 million Europeans needed to be vaccinated against the virus.

Leinen pointed out that only a few pharmaceutical companies in Germany, France and Britain could produce the vaccines. At the same time, poorer EU countries hard hit by the global recession cannot afford to pay for sufficient doses, he said.

"The swine flu virus is going to test solidarity among EU members. We need to show it," Leinen said, adding: "We really need a vaccine as soon as possible."

On Friday, EU health officials said they were working on drawing up a common strategy to confront swine flu before children return to school in September, increasing the risk the illness will spread.

sp/dpa/ap/afp
Editor: Andy Valvur