(DH) Agreements secured for pre-pandemic vaccine for the UK

Agreements have been signed between the UK Government and vaccine manufacturers to secure supplies of up to 90 million doses of pre-pandemic H1N1 vaccine before a pandemic begins, the Department of Health announced today.

The deals signed between Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Baxter, will enable production of pre-pandemic vaccine to begin as soon as possible.

The agreements could provide enough vaccine to protect the most vulnerable in our population before a pandemic is likely to arrive, without affecting our supply of seasonal flu vaccine.

Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson said:

"The localised cases of swine flu found in the UK have so far been mild, and our strategy of containing the spread with anti-virals appears to have been effective in reducing symptoms and preventing further spread of infection.

"Scientists tell us that as yet we don't know enough about this novel strain, or whether it's likely to mutate, but that this virus has the potential to become a pandemic and we can't predict how serious that would be. We have an opportunity to secure vaccine in advance of a pandemic wave. We have Advance Purchase Agreements to provide vaccine for the entire UK population which will take effect when Phase 6 pandemic is declared. It will then take over a year for all the vaccine necessary to be provided.

"These additional arrangements provide the opportunity by December this year to have enough pre-pandemic vaccine to protect at least half of the population from swine flu. This will however depend on when and if the manufacturers switched from seasonal to H1N1 pandemic specific vaccine production at a time after Phase 6 is declared by the World Health Organisation, as this will take precedence over pre-pandemic contracts."

If a pandemic is declared, Advance Supply Agreements signed by the Government with GSK and Baxter in July 2007, will enable the UK to purchase up to 132 million doses of pandemic specific vaccine, when it becomes available.

UN Pandemic alert still at phase 5, as influenza A (H1N1) continues to spread

New York, Apr 30 2009 2:00PM
As it continued to intensively monitor the spread of the influenza A (H1N1) virus, the United Nations health agency today held its pandemic alert to Phase 5, put in place yesterday, and reiterated its call for heightened vigilance.

"The situation continues to evolve," Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), said during what has become a daily press teleconference from the agency, adding that there was nothing new today that indicated a move to the highest level of alert, Phase 6.

"We see some countries reporting new cases," Mr. Fukuda said. "We also see some countries, in which infection has been going on, reporting continued cases in their countries. And then we're seeing that, in other countries, cases appear to be holding steady, for example, the United States," he added.

As of 2:50 p.m. Geneva time, lab-confirmed cases of the virus rose to 236 worldwide, up from the148 reported yesterday, he stated.

The largest jump occurred in Mexico, which went up to 97 confirmed cases from 26 reported earlier, including seven deaths. That steep rise, Mr. Fukuda said, probably comes from the backlog of thousands of specimens submitted for testing and for which the laboratory results are just coming in.

In announcing the notching up of the alert level to Phase 5 last night, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said it was a signal to Governments and to the private sector that preparatory actions should now be undertaken with "extreme urgency."

Alert Phase 5 meant that sustained human to human transmission had been confirmed, with widespread community outbreaks in at least two regions, she said.

On the positive side, she reported that the world is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history, because of preparations made for avian flu outbreaks over the past years.

Dr. Chan added that WHO will be tracking the pandemic at the epidemiological, clinical, and virological levels. And the results of these ongoing assessments will be made publicly available. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them."

Today, Mr. Fukuda said that WHO's preparations have included a distribution of antiviral drugs to developing countries, including Mexico, out of 2 million doses donated for that purpose by the Roche pharmaceutical company.

The agency is also working with Roche, which is planning to scale up its production of antivirals, on a framework to replenish its stockpile.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), meanwhile, reiterated that there is no evidence available that the influenza A (H1N1) virus is coming from or circulating in pigs.

It was also announced today that Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will hold a town hall meeting tomorrow with New York staff to give an overview of the influenza A (H1N1) situation and the UN's preparedness to address a potential pandemic.
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