Swine flu vaccines to fall short: WHO
The World Health Organisation warned yesterday that the annual production of swine flu vaccines is expected to fall well short of the 4.9 billion doses that it had earlier forecast.
Production "will be substantially less than 4.9 billion" doses, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told journalists.
Some 25 pharmaceutical laboratories had indicated that weekly production is lower than 94 million doses currently, he said, adding that current clinical trials indicate that a single dose is sufficient to offer immunity against the A(H1N1) virus.
In May, the WHO had forecast a weekly output of 94.3 million doses if full scale vaccine production was launched.
The shortfall was also highlighted in a statement issued by WHO chief Margaret Chan, who said that "current supplies of pandemic vaccine are inadequate for a world population in which virtually everyone is susceptible to infection by a new and readily contagious virus."
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