Swine Flu now Pandemic: Vaccine produced

Jun 13, 2009 Editorial

One day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared, after quite a bit of hesitation that the outbreak of Swine Flu caused by the A(H1N1) virus was a “pandemic”, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG announced (yesterday) that it had successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine, weeks ahead of expectations.

Novartis said it would use the first batch of vaccine, produced at a Novartis plant in Germany, for pre-clinical evaluation and testing and it is also being considered for clinical trials.
The company said the facility could potentially produce millions of doses of vaccine a week and is building a second plant in the U.S. The WHO had expected that commercial production might commence in September. Novartis’s plans highlight the fear expressed by WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan that developing countries may have difficulties securing vaccines.
Novartis said more than thirty governments have already requested vaccine supplies, including the U.S. Department of Health, which placed a $289 million order in May. As other companies enter production, we can expect the pattern to continue.

We hope that the WHO will be able to work out some arrangement with the pharmaceuticals to direct some of their production to the poorer countries since the effort to halt the now declared “pandemic” has to be fought on the widest possible battlefront.
The A(H1N1) virus reached pandemic status because three conditions were met, according to the WHO: it was a new (mutated) infection; it caused serious illness in humans – in this case death and thirdly, it spread easily from person to person and eventually around the world.
The virus came to world’s attention on April 21, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it had learned of two cases of a previously unknown strain of swine flu in Southern California.
Three days later, Mexico announced it had hundreds of cases and 68 deaths. Worldwide, 29,669 cases in 74 countries, and 145 deaths, had been reported as of yesterday.

The WTO’s decision was based on an overall assessment in the eight most heavily hit countries — Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States — that the virus is spreading in a sustained way in communities, according to Chan.
Very worrying for us, she pointed out: “Most important, we do not know how this virus will behave in conditions typically found in the developing world.” Chan expects the virus to sketch a “bleaker” picture than it has so far because of the double whammy of the extreme conditions for communicability and the potential shortage of vaccines.
Meanwhile, even though the results of two blood samples sent abroad for testing have not been returned, Minister of Health Ramsammy asserted that he “strongly believes that the two cases do not relate to the virus.”

The Minister would be better advised to have these types of pronouncements made by the medical specialists of his Ministry. Additionally, we are also not sure how the Minister could assert that, “long before people enter the country, we know who is coming…and we have an indication of any health problems that may arise on the way to Guyana.”
Even the airlines do not have their manifests ready before the flights take off.
Finally the Minister’s statement, referring to Tamiflu, that the medication to treat the virus is “available”, is very misleading. At the very best Tamiflu can play a holding role until the vaccine such as was just formulated by Novartis is available. At the worst, since the effectiveness of Tamiflu against the H1N1 common flu virus has been questioned in tests in Canada and the U.S., how can we be complacent that it will deal with its mutated A(H1N1) swine flu variant?
We appreciate the Minister’s efforts to allay fears in the country but his pronouncements must be balanced with objective facts. Swine Flu will reach Guyana, and we cannot deal with it with just optimistic hopes.

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Swine Flu now Pandemic: Vaccine produced

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