Swine flu round up - June 12, 2009
All Nature’s swine flu coverage is collected on our news special page. These regular updates on The Great Beyond round up the latest from other news sources around the globe.
Vaccines seem to be the H1N1 topic of the moment after the World Health Organisation raised the Panic Level, sorry, the PanDEMic Level to 6, signalling we are now officially in a pandemic.
“One immediate effect of the declaration of an H1N1 flu pandemic will be to speed the production of a vaccine against the new virus”, says the LA Times. The Times doesn’t really explain why this might be the case.
As Nature noted earlier this week, “Whether the WHO decision will change much in practice remains to be seen, as the world has clearly been in a pandemic for weeks.” AP doesn’t buy it either. The wire service has a story out headlined ‘CDC: Swine flu pandemic level won't change efforts’.
Either way, vaccine production is stepping up. GSK has announced it has started development on a potential H1N1 vaccine and offered to convert its donation of 50 million doses of bird flu vaccines to swine flu.
Sanofi Pasteur has also pledged to get behind the WHO and Novartis says it has successfully produced a first batch of H1N1 vaccine, “weeks ahead of expectations”.
“This is something all players have been working on. Novartis is working with cells and is able to work quicker,” Andrew Weiss, an analyst with Bank Vontobel, told Forbes. “But all of the other big players have started production in line with flu-vaccine production, which starts in March.”
Where this vaccine ends up is a crucial question though. AP reports:
In previous pandemics, vaccines have never left the country where they are made before all of that country's own needs have been met."WHO can say whatever it wishes, but pharmaceutical companies will take their marching orders from the politicians," said David Fedson, a vaccines expert and former professor of medicine at the University of Virginia.
"Do you think any doses of vaccine made in France, Germany, the Czech Republic or anywhere will be allowed out to go to other countries just because there's a contract?" Fedson said.
Finally, proving that swine flu is now part of our culture, police in New Hampshire say a teenager managed to avoid arrest for a time after a woman at his house told officers the house was under H1N1 quarantine.
Image: Getty
