Japanese junior high school students wear masks as precaution against H1N1 flu during a school tour at the upper house of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. Japan confirmed dozens more swine flu cases overnight bringing its tally to 176, health officials said Tuesday, as the government considered scaling down quarantine checks at airports while focusing on its domestic outbreak. -- PHOTO: AP
GENEVA - DRUG manufacturers won't be able to start making a H1N1 flu vaccine until mid-July at the earliest, weeks later than previous predictions, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.
It will then take months to produce a new vaccine.
The disclosure that making a swine flu vaccine is proving more difficult than experts first thought came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan met on Tuesday with representatives from about 30 pharmaceutical companies to discuss the subject.
After the meeting, Mr Ban declared that solidarity was the key to resolving the H1N1 flu outbreak, urging governments to make sure all countries have access to drugs and vaccines.
He also said virus samples and flu data must be shared and 'self-defeating' measures like trade and travel bans should be avoided.
'We do not yet know how far and how fast it will spread, how serious the illness will be and, indeed, how many lives will be lost,' Mr Ban told WHO's annual assembly in Geneva.
'Global solidarity must be at the heart of the world's response.' '(It) must mean that all have access to drugs and vaccines,' he said.
Health officials from around the world are meeting here this week to discuss the outbreak that has infected 9,830 people in over 40 countries, killing at least 79 of them.
Vaccine experts estimated under the best conditions, they could produce nearly 5 billion doses of H1N1 flu vaccine over a year after beginning full-scale production.
Mass producing a pandemic vaccine would be a gamble, as it would take away manufacturing capacity for the seasonal flu vaccine that kills up to 500,000 people each year.
Some experts have wondered whether the world really needs a vaccine for an illness that so far appears mild. -- AP
