Apanemia Health Centre

The World Health Organization (WHO) will distribute millions of free doses of swine flu vaccine in some of the world’s poorest countries.

About a hundred developing countries receive such international donations.

The specific list of countries will be announced soon, he explained on Monday October 12th, 2009, Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, WHO.

According Kieny, a first wave would be distributed in November 2009 and would be about 60 million doses. Be enough to vaccinate at 2% of the population of these countries. The next goal is to reach 10%.

The idea is to immunize first-sector workers in health that are most exposed to the virus of influenza.

Then vaccinate other susceptible groups such as pregnant women and people with certain chronic diseases.

Given the controversy in the richest countries, where much of the population is afraid to be vaccinated, Kieny said that a single dose is sufficient to prevent disease and repeated that there is no reason to doubt the effectiveness of the vaccine.

In this regard Juan Ortín, virologist flu virus expert at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Spain, had told BBC News that “there is reason to believe that this vaccine is less secure” than that of seasonal flu.

Donations

The doses were donated by pharmaceutical companies and a group of developed countries, led by the United States, announced they will deliver to the poorest 10% of its stockpile of vaccines.

Sanofi-Aventis, the largest producer of flu vaccines in the world, and GlaxoSmithKline donate 150 million doses, while a third manufacturer, Medimmune, delivered a still unspecified.

Kieny said that global production of vaccines against H1N1 influenza may be greater than estimated in the latest forecast, but gave no figures.

In September 2009, the WHO had cut its forecasts to 3000 million doses per year, when previously had said he would produce 5,000 million.