A vaccine against swine flu will be fast-tracked for use in Britain in just five days, with 130 million doses on order.
The Department of Health expects to have enough vaccine to give it to half the population this year and, should enough people want it, vaccinations for the remainder over a longer period. Each person will need two doses of the vaccine.
The first doses specific to the H1N1 swine flu virus are set to arrive in September and could be prioritised through regulatory approval in less than a week.
It comes after the first British patient without underlying health problems died after contracting swine flu, taking the number of swine flu-linked deaths in the UK to 15.
Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, who has been attending Department of Health meetings on the outbreak, said GPs’ surgeries were prepared for one of the biggest winter vaccination campaigns in almost 50 years.
He said that, although swine flu was not in the main causing serious illness in patients, health officials were eager to start a mass vaccination campaign, starting first on priority groups who were susceptible to infection or prone to complications.
It is likely the elderly would be given a seasonal flu jab to guard against other circulating flu strains - as happens every year - as well as the swine flu vaccination, Dr Holden said. The new vaccine is likely to be given in two doses, but could be left as a single jab if this is found to provide high rates of immunity.
“The high-risk groups will be done at GPs’ surgeries. People are still making decisions over this, but we want to get cracking before we get a second wave, which is traditionally far more virulent.”
Britain also has a stockpile of 500 million doses of Tamiflu (ostelamivir), the anti-viral drug used to treat flu symptoms. But a vaccine would provide a preventative measure against illness and would be used to ease pressure on the health service and the wider economy if “several million” people become ill as expected at the height of a pandemic.
It takes several weeks or months to make flu vaccines as they have to be cultured using chicken eggs.
Regulators at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the fast-tracked procedure has involved clinical trials of a “mock-up” vaccine similar to the one that will be used for the biggest mass vaccination programme in generations. It will be introduced into the general population while regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials.
The EMEA said fast-tracking would not be at the expense of patient safety, adding: “The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management plan. There is quite a body of evidence regarding safety on the trials of the mock-up, and the actual vaccine could be assessed in five days.”
The Department of Health said that a vaccination programme would be drawn up based on expert advice.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6694046.ece
