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WHO says bird flu vaccine to take longer than six months
Bangkok, Jan 25: A vaccine for the bird flu that`s rampaging through six Asian nations is more than six months away, a spokesman for the World Health Organization predicted today.
Bangkok, Jan 25: A vaccine for the bird flu
that's rampaging through six Asian nations is more than six
months away, a spokesman for the World Health Organization
predicted today.
The WHO had said earlier it hoped a vaccine for the
disease, which has killed six people and felled millions of
chickens, would be ready in four weeks' time. But the U.N.
health agency has said on its web site that it fears that its
forecast that the virus would mutate had come true.
"I don't think we're looking at a workable vaccine within six months. That's too late for the influenza season in Asia but it would be available,'' Peter Cordingley, the WHO spokesman for the region, told in Manila, Philippines.
"It could be available for next winter's flu season ... It's not promising this year,'' he added.
Vietnam and Thailand are the only countries this year where avian flu has been passed onto humans. But the virus has hit millions of chickens in six Asian nations, raising fears it might mutate.
Presently human victims have been infected directly from chickens. But scientists fear that the disease might change further and combine with a regular human influenza virus, making person-to-person infection possible. This then could foster a new human flu pandemic.
Governments in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have ordered mass chicken culls to combat the spread of the virus. Vietnam has slaughtered more than 3 million chickens and Thailand more than 7 million.
Bureau Report
"I don't think we're looking at a workable vaccine within six months. That's too late for the influenza season in Asia but it would be available,'' Peter Cordingley, the WHO spokesman for the region, told in Manila, Philippines.
"It could be available for next winter's flu season ... It's not promising this year,'' he added.
Vietnam and Thailand are the only countries this year where avian flu has been passed onto humans. But the virus has hit millions of chickens in six Asian nations, raising fears it might mutate.
Presently human victims have been infected directly from chickens. But scientists fear that the disease might change further and combine with a regular human influenza virus, making person-to-person infection possible. This then could foster a new human flu pandemic.
Governments in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have ordered mass chicken culls to combat the spread of the virus. Vietnam has slaughtered more than 3 million chickens and Thailand more than 7 million.
Bureau Report