U.S. to donate swine flu vaccine to WHO
POSTED September 18, 2009 - 15:58 | POSTED BY Jaspreet Kaur
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on September 18, 2009 - 16:30
The eight countries who will also be donating the vaccine are Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
However, the White House has not yet released any details about the program, like the timetables and exact amount of vaccine to be donated.
A statement from the White House said, “The United States recognizes that just as this challenge transcends borders, so must our response. We invite other nations to join in this urgent global effort.”
The statement also included that “we remain confident that the United States will have sufficient doses of the vaccine to ensure that every American who wants a vaccine is able to receive one.”
Vaccine manufacturers Sanofi Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline will also be donating 150 million doses of pandemic vaccine to the WHO.
It is being anticipated that the overall production of the vaccine -- by about 20 makers in total -- will come to be around two to four billion doses over a year’s time.
Number of vaccine doses required still not clear
It is still not clear as to how many people will be protected from the vaccine. The vaccine tests have shown results contradictory to what the experts said.
The first tests of the pandemic vaccine revealed that adults will require only one shot and not two as predicted by some experts. But in all probability, children will be requiring two doses.
WHO wants the vaccine for poor nations
WHO officials are trying their best to ensure that all the vaccines and antiviral drugs are not just supplied to rich nations. They do not want the poor countries to be left behind since it can lead to an increased number of swine flu deaths.
Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director general, was quoted as saying, “Improving access to vaccine is the central global issue at this time.”
Wealthy countries have already placed orders for supply of hordes of pandemic flu vaccine, and talks between WHO, the United Nations, vaccine manufacturers and rich countries have been “slow and time-consuming”, Fukuda revealed.
He said that if the wealthy countries do not help then “the least developed countries are not really going to have a chance of getting the vaccine”.
