Geneva (dpa) - The United States Secretary of Health and Human
Services said Tuesday that her country has not yet placed an order
for a vaccine against the new A(H1N1) virus.
The vaccine is still in the process of being developed. "We don't
know enough about the strain," Kathleen Sebelius told reporters in
Geneva.
She said they were still gathering information on the virus and
once that was completed her department would take further action.
"We have not placed orders for vaccine," she confirmed.
Sebelius was in Geneva to attend the World Health Assembly, where
some poorer nations had warned against richer nations have more
access to anti-virals and vaccines.
The acting head of the Center for Disease Control, Richard
Bessler, said there was global cooperation underway to produce a
vaccine.
"We are working to develop vaccine seed strains to share with
manufacturers around the world," he said.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary general Ban Ki-moon and World
Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan were meeting in
Geneva with about 30 drugmakers to discuss vaccine issues.
Sebelius said that all steps taken against the virus involved a
balancing act, in which health risk were weighed against other
issues. The same balance would be needed when making decisions on
vaccine production, she implied.
To some extent, vaccine production for the H1N1 strain would have
to come at the expense of seasonal flu vaccine.
A day earlier, her Mexican counterpart, Jose Angel Cordova, had
said there were economic and political repercussions from the way
governments' handled and would continue to react to the swine flu.
Copyright 2009 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH