WHO Emphasizes H1N1 Vaccine Safety
08 Oct
2009
The WHO on Tuesday continued to express
confidence in the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine as few mild adverse effects have
been reported by patients participating in China's vaccine campaign, the Associated Press
reports. Out of the 39,000 people in China who received the H1N1
vaccine, four reported experiencing side effects such as muscle cramps and
headache, according to WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl
(Higgins, 10/6).
"Adverse events are fully to be
expected, especially these mild types," Hartl
told journalists Tuesday, Agence France-Presse
reports. "The vaccine is the single most important tool that we have
against influenza," he said, adding he believes it vital for health
care workers (10/6).
Hartl emphasized the safety of the H1N1 vaccines,
"which have already been approved, have been used for years and years
and years in their seasonal vaccine formulation and have been shown to be
among the safest vaccines that exist," Reuters reports (Nebehay, 10/6).
In a second story, Reuters examines
several scenarios of how the H1N1 pandemic will play out as the second wave
of the virus moves through the Northern hemisphere.
"Whatever the virus does, the world
lacks the capacity to vaccinate most of the population against flu,"
leaving poor nations dependent upon the H1N1
vaccine donations over wealthy countries, Reuters writes. Though "the
first wave of the swine flu pandemic affected wealthier
nations like the United States,
Australia and Japan,
where it is still active," the U.N's senior
technical expert on influenza, Julie Hall, said there is now evidence
"that the virus is beginning to penetrate into some of the poorest
communities in the world" (Fox, 10/6).
In related news, SabaNews.net reports Abdul Kareem Rasa,
Morocco's
minister of public health and population, on Tuesday appealed to the WHO
for one million doses of the H1N1 vaccine for Muslim pilgrims from poor
countries (10/6).
Saudi Arabian health officials say they
are prepared to "welcome some three million pilgrims during the annual
hajj to Mecca
in December amid the heightened alert on the swine flu pandemic," the AFP reports. In
addition to calling upon hajj participants to receive the seasonal flu shot
and, if available, the H1N1 vaccine, a Saudi health official said the
country has four million doses of vaccine and hospitals prepared to deal
with H1N1. The AFP notes, "Saudi Arabia has to date
reported 9,000 cases of swine flu and 35 deaths from the disease, one of
the highest levels of contamination in the Arab world" (10/5).
Meanwhile, Chinese health officials
reported that an 18-year-old women in Lhasa, the capital of the far western
Tibet Autonomous Region, had become the country's first death from H1N1,
the Wall Street Journal
reports (Canaves, 10/6). In response, the Chinese
government "'urgently' sent 200,000 doses of influenza A (H1N1)
vaccine to the region … in a bid to contain the virus, China's health
ministry said in a statement on its website," AFP/Times of India
reports (10/6).
This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org
with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can
view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report,
search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.
© Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Article URL:
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Main News Category: Swine Flu
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