GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The U.N. health agency says the world lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet potential demand for a human bird flu vaccine.
The statement, made Friday from World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, came as the World Health Organization announced progress in developing a vaccine for human cases of bird flu, known as H5N1.
"For the first time, results presented at the meeting have convincingly demonstrated that vaccination with newly developed avian influenza vaccines can bring about a potentially protective immune response against strains of H5N1 virus found in a variety of geographical locations," WHO said.
The statement came after two days of meetings, which were attended by more than 100 influenza vaccine experts, from academia, national and regional public health institutions, the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory bodies throughout the world.
"Some of the vaccines work with low doses of antigen, which means that significantly more vaccine doses can be available in case of a pandemic," the statement said.
But, it warned that in spite of the encouraging progress, "the world still lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet potential global pandemic influenza vaccine demand as current capacity is estimated at less than 400 million doses per year of trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine."
To counter this challenge, WHO has launched a $10-billion action plan to increase vaccine supply over a decade, including the transfer of technology to developing countries so they can set up their own influenza vaccine production units.
There have been 273 confirmed human cases worldwide, 167 of them fatal, the vast majority in Southeast Asia, the United Nations said.
