Influenza vaccine capacity lacking in case of pandemic, WHO warns
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Influenza vaccine manufacture: further research is needed to improve
efficiency |
Immediate and sustained action is needed if the world is to be prepared for an influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization warned earlier this week. Specifically, it highlighted a shortfall in the amount of influenza vaccine available.
“We are presently several billion doses short of the amount of
pandemic influenza vaccine we would need to protect the global population.
This
situation could lead to a public health crisis,” said Marie-Paule
Kieny, director of the WHO’s Initiative for Vaccine Research.
The WHO said that production capacity for seasonal influenza vaccine
currently stands at 350 million doses. By 2008–09, the WHO estimates
that global production of pandemic influenza vaccine would not exceed
2.34 billion doses per year, which still falls short of the expected
demand for vaccine during a pandemic. The problem is made worse because
a two-dose course of vaccine may be needed to protect individuals.
In a “Global action plan”, published earlier this week (PDF 520K),
the WHO sets out three approaches to increase vaccine production. First,
it recommends an increase in the use of seasonal influenza vaccine to
provide protection against seasonal influenza and to stimulate demand
for more vaccine to be produced. Secondly, it recommends an increase
in production capacity, for example through improvements to vaccine production
yields and by building new plants. Thirdly, it calls for further research
and development to design more potent and effective vaccines and to produce
vaccines more efficiently and quickly.
Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, Dr Kieny said: “Sustained
action must be taken now, otherwise in three or four years we will be
asking ourselves about the supply of vaccines and nothing will have moved.
Although the industry has increased … [its] capacity, this will still
be insufficient to meet the needs of the global population.”
In the UK, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said that
it is in favour of exploring the strategy of using pre-pandemic vaccination
for significant sections of the population. The Department of Health
is currently working on a revised pandemic contingency plan which will
be published for consultation early next year.
Seasonal flu vaccine production The effort put into producing seasonal influenza vaccines is questioned
in the BMJ this week. Tom Jefferson, Cochrane Vaccines
Field, Rome, argues that there is little evidence to support the safety of
these vaccines and suggests, given the huge resources involved, a re-evaluation
is
undertaken (BMJ 2006;333:912). |
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