Experts review bird flu vaccine policy

Avian flu: An expert group will meet next week to discuss buying supplies of an avian flu vaccine to help protect against a possible pandemic.

Ireland currently has no stocks of vaccine for the H5N1 strain of flu which has killed more than 50 people in Asia over the last two years.

The Department of Health had adopted a "wait and see" approach before ordering supplies of the vaccine. However, a spokesman said in light of the decision by a number of other countries to purchase the H5N1 vaccine, the position was now going to be reviewed.

The confirmation last month that the virus had claimed its first Indonesian victims prompted the British government to order two million doses of the vaccine. These will be used to protect healthcare workers. France, Canada, Australia and the US are all now either producing or buying the vaccine.

Tests are being carried out to discover if three people confirmed dead from the virus in Indonesia contracted it from infected birds or from a human.

A decision on whether Ireland should order supplies of a vaccine will be made by the influenza pandemic expert group, which is chaired by Prof William Hall, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, when it meets on August 11th.

The Department of Health spokesman said the expert group had waited for a couple of weeks before meeting because a balance was required between buying the vaccine and waiting to see if a mutant strain of the H5N1 virus emerged in the human population.

If this happened, the vaccine would need to be reconfigured to match the strain that had developed the capacity to spread through human populations. He said if the expert group recommends buying the vaccine there are ample supplies available worldwide that could be delivered quickly.

The H5N1 has a high fatality rate per case, currently estimated at 76 per cent, making it two-and-a-half times more lethal than smallpox or the SARS virus.

The Department also confirmed that it is buying enough of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir) to treat 25 per cent of the population in the event of an influenza pandemic.

This follows an allocation of €6 million on top of its original estimate of €9 million, which would have bought enough medicine to treat 16 per cent of the population.