Stockpiling bird flu vaccines
- By:groshan fabiola
Bird flu is not a problem that affects only the birds but the humans too. It is known that this condition is not treatable and more than that we have statistics that prove that more than half of the affected persons died.
It is also known that a vaccine was developed in order to prevent the spreading of the virus. This vaccine is not produced in large quantities and in case of a pandemic there is no chance for everyone that is affected to get one.
That is why it is recommended for the governments to consider stockpiling vaccine against H5N1 bird flu, before a pandemic starts.
When they realized the virus will not b stopped in Asia for at least a couple of years and that the risk of H5 is much higher the policy changed. The US government decided to ask manufacturers to make 4 million doses while other Europe countries choose to create a stockpile of 2 million doses each.
Specialists agree with the stockpiling but they do mention that in a world of over six billion people 4 million doses, or 2 million doses for each country is nowhere near enough to make a significant difference. The doses will only get to a small part of the countries population and at a global level no significant changes will be seen.
More than that until now the WHO said that making a stockpile of vaccines is useless. That is because nobody knows which flu will lead to a new pandemic.
The problems that occur in Asia and the unstoppable outbreaks makes even the specialists to change their minds. It is well known that the bird flu virus called H5N1 is making more and more human victims so the possibility of stockpiling occurs again. More than that, recent studies proved that the vaccine could provide some protection even if it does not exactly match the pandemic virus.
Another hard reality says that humans require two shots of the vaccine in order to get immune to a strain of flu that they have not developed before. For H5, a single shot is enough for priming people’s immune systems.
Now that it was proved that the vaccine is useful the only problem that occurs is the production of the vaccine. In US only half of the requested production is done. It is good to know that companies have a two to three-month window between production runs of ordinary flu vaccine to make H5 vaccine. Some even say that they can not do that because someone has to buy the production.About the author:
So, if you want to find out more about bird flu treatment or even about bird flu info please click this link http://www.bird-flu-info-center.com/