The worldwide supply of a pandemic influenza vaccine will take twice as long to manufacture and countries could have barely half of what they need for the fall’s flu season if current production problems persist, the World Health Organization revealed Monday.

Canadian health authorities admitted that not everyone will receive the vaccine at the start of the flu season, as they scrambled to prioritize which groups would move to the head of the queue. Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline Inc. is under contract to produce enough vaccine for all Canadians who wish to receive it, but it’s unclear how quickly the vaccine will be rolled out and even if most will be vaccinated in the event the virus returns with a vengeance this fall.

Still, Canada and other affluent countries are better off having lined up manufacturers and purchased the bulk of the vaccine. The WHO urged wealthier nations to hand over vital pandemic influenza vaccines to poorer nations – a tall order in the face of dwindling supplies.

The federal government said it is considering the WHO’s request, but health authorities stressed that Canadians would get first priority.

“ The vaccines may not come all at once and we can’t vaccinate everybody at the same time ”— Theresa Tam, Public Health Agency of Canada

Fear of a limited supply was sparked Monday after the WHO revealed that the race to produce an H1N1 vaccine has achieved “poor” results because the new virus strain is not growing fast enough in the eggs used as a mainstay of flu vaccine production. Manufacturers report that the swine flu strains being used are barely producing half as much yield to make vaccines as the seasonal flu virus. If the problem persists, the vaccine wouldn’t be immediately available for everyone.

Source/Full Story: The Globe and Mail

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