WHO warns against hoarding flu vaccines

According to Margaret Chan, World Health Organisation Director General, a vaccine for swine flu, the first pandemic of the 21st century, may be available as early as August. That is good news - at least for peole in industrial countries.

But during a WHO swine flu summit, which wrapped up on Friday in Cancun, Mexico, Chan said that laboratories with capacity to produce the vaccine are mostly located in Europe. Experts say this could have dire consequences for poor countries, especially those in the southern hemisphere.

90% of projected stocks committed to rich countries

Jon Kim Andrus, an expert from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said that 90 percent of the vaccine is already commited to high income countries, where some 893 million people live, and 10 percent to countries like China and Russia, which can produce some of the vaccines themselves.

"If they began marketing the vaccine right now, developing countries would not get any," Andrus said at the Cancun summit.

Spain's health minister, Trinidad Jimenez, called for the WHO, together with the European Union, to reserve a portion of vaccine stock to be purchased for developing countries.

"We cannot allow a massive reservation of stocks for purchase by a few countries," said Jimenez. Spain will not be able to build a laboratory capable of producing A(H1N1) vaccines until 2012.

The WHO and PAHO are negotiating with vaccine producers to secure donations or sales at lower prices for developing countries. Richer nations are being asked to share some of their vaccine stocks.

The WHO director general Chan said two companies had agreed to manufacture 250 million doses to be sent to developing countries, but she also acknowledged that the amount "is obviously not enough."

Chan said that while the first vaccines may be ready in August, recommendations for use may take awhile longer. She urged rich countries not to hoarde future vaccine stocks.

Chinese want to go it alone

China wants to be self-sufficient in vaccine production, Chinese Health Minister Zhu Chen said on the summit sidelines on Friday, and plans to have a vaccine available by September.

The Chinese minister said that some public companies in China are in the initial manufacturing process of a vaccine and that a preliminary version is likely to be ready by the end of this month.

The virus is currently being treated with influenza drug Tamiflu. However cases of infection resistant to the drug have been reported in Hong Kong, Denmark and Japan.

Great Britain the worst affected in Europe

Britain has warned it could face more than 100,000 cases of swine flu a day by the end of August, if the current infection rate is maintained. With nearly 7,500 cases of swine flu, the country has already been hit hardest in Europe.

British health officials say they have abandoned attempts to stop the flu spreading, instead focusing on those who are most susceptible, such as the obese or those with asthma or other respiratory conditions.

Three people have died in Britain so far from the virus.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova called for "solidarity so that money is not the only factor in producer decisions about the distribution of the vaccine."

Mexico was the epicenter of the pandemic and remains the second worst-affected country after the United States.

To date, at least 337 people have died around the world from swine flu, which has infected 80,000 people in 121 countries.

ch/reuters/dpa/afp/ap
Editor: Kateri Jochum