(MY091) H1N1 is ‘unstoppable’, says WHO as it calls for vaccines

WASHINGTON, July 14 — Saying the new H1N1 virus is “unstoppable”, the World Health Organisation gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain yesterday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one.

Every country will need to vaccinate citizens against the swine flu virus and must choose who else would get priority after nurses, doctors and technicians, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.

Several reports showed the new virus attacks people differently than seasonal flu — affecting younger people, the severely obese and seemingly healthy adults, and causing disease deep in the lungs.

Kieny briefed reporters on the findings of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation, or SAGE. “The committee recognized that the H1N1 pandemic ... is unstoppable and therefore that all countries need access to vaccine,” Kieney said.

“The SAGE recognised first that healthcare workers should be immunised in all countries in order to retain a functional health system as the virus evolves,” she added.

After that, each country should decide who is next in line, based on the virus’s unusual behaviour.

Seasonal influenza is deadly enough — each year it is involved in 250,000 to 500,000 deaths globally. But most are the elderly or those with some kind of chronic disease that makes them more vulnerable to flu, such as asthma.