WHO Announces - Don't worry about the Swine Flu Vaccine Safety

August 16, 2009

es-says-who/367206/

Don't worry about swine flu vaccines, says WHO

Surinder Sud / New Delhi August 17, 2009, 1:20 IST

There's no need to worry on the safety or efficacy of the anti-swine flu

vaccines being currently developed in different countries, said the World Health

Organization.

Taking notice of the fears being expressed in different quarters on the safety

or risks in using the vaccines, the WHO said the regulatory procedures in place

for the licencing of pandemic vaccines, including procedures for expediting

regulatory approval, are rigorous and do not compromise safety or quality.

Drug companies in several countries are in an advanced stage of developing a

H1N1 influenza vaccine to check the swine flu pandemic which has swept across

over 160 countries, affecting over 1.5 million (confirmed cases; actual number

may be far higher) and killing nearly 1,000 persons. In India, too, over two

dozen people have lost their lives due to swine flu in recent weeks, in

different cities.

Some Indian drug companies are also engaged in developing a swine flu vaccine

based on the seed strain of H1N1 influenza virus provided by the WHO. However,

it may take a few months to develop and test the vaccines and get approval for

their general use.

In a statement issued from Geneva, the WHO has said: " Influenza vaccines have

been used for over 60 years and have an established record of safety in all age

groups. "

At the same time, it has also cautioned that some adverse events may arise

during a pandemic when the vaccine is administered on a massive scale.

" Some adverse events, which may be too rare to show up even in large clinic

trials, may become apparent when very large numbers of people receive a pandemic

vaccine, " the WHO has said, while maintaining that such cases will be rare.

It has observed that nearly 50 million people had died in the 1918 world-wide

influenza pandemic, largely because vaccines had not been developed by then.

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