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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...sh-on-delivery-of-flu-vaccine/article1267669/
CAROLINE ALPHONSO
TORONTO ? From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 03:43AM EDT
In a bid to keep pace with other countries battling the influenza pandemic, Canada is aiming to push up the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine ahead of its scheduled mid-November rollout.
The pledge from Canada's chief public-health officer, David Butler-Jones, came as Britain and France received their first batches of the drug yesterday, with the intention of vaccinating their citizens starting in October, as the northern hemisphere braces for a resurgence of the virus this fall.
But before anyone can receive an H1N1 shot in the arm, clinical trials testing the drug's safety have to be completed and regulators must license the product for mass distribution.
Canada, which will embark on its own trials, is watching other countries with an eye to rolling out the vaccine sooner.
The federal government announced yesterday that it was putting an additional $2.7-million to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told reporters in a briefing that the funding is in addition to the $10.8-million the government put into swine-flu research earlier this summer.
The country has ordered 50 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline, which is contracted to produce pandemic flu vaccine for all Canadians who need and want it. The rush to deliver the vaccine quickly has become all the more pressing with the school year about to begin: Public-health authorities fear the virus will gain strength in September, with the aid of classrooms serving as incubators.
"The sooner we can get the vaccine, the better. We're working with the regulator and the manufacturer to do that," Dr. Butler-Jones told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday. "We're targeting mid-November as the latest."
Canada's vaccine regulator, a branch of Health Canada, will want to be certain that the issues of the 1970s won't resurface before fast-tracking any new drug for a mass vaccination campaign. An outbreak of swine influenza in the United States in 1976 led to fears that a pandemic was emerging, and millions were inoculated. There was no pandemic, but the vaccine was blamed for killing 25 people in the U.S. and causing paralysis in others.
"Even though we're very confident, we're going to be hedging our bets," Dr. Butler-Jones said of the clinical trials.
There is no predicting the severity and timing of the new pandemic. The virus has killed 72 Canadians, and infected thousands of others, although most of those cases have been mild. Of particular concern to health officials is that the H1N1 virus disproportionately targets healthy, young people and pregnant women. Typically, most deaths from seasonal influenza are in the elderly.
The United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said this week that the virus could infect as much as half the population in the U.S., and kill anywhere between 30,000 and 90,000 people.
Dr. Butler-Jones declined to make any predictions for Canada. If the country hadn't changed its practices since the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions worldwide, Canada would see about 150,000 deaths from H1N1, he said. But the measures put in place, including an emergency stockpile of anti-virals, ventilators, hospital care and a vaccine, will prevent the virus from wreaking havoc.
"It will still be messy," Dr. Butler-Jones said. "There's no question about that. But it's nothing like the cataclysmic predictions that some people sometimes make."
CAROLINE ALPHONSO
TORONTO ? From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 03:43AM EDT
In a bid to keep pace with other countries battling the influenza pandemic, Canada is aiming to push up the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine ahead of its scheduled mid-November rollout.
The pledge from Canada's chief public-health officer, David Butler-Jones, came as Britain and France received their first batches of the drug yesterday, with the intention of vaccinating their citizens starting in October, as the northern hemisphere braces for a resurgence of the virus this fall.
But before anyone can receive an H1N1 shot in the arm, clinical trials testing the drug's safety have to be completed and regulators must license the product for mass distribution.
Canada, which will embark on its own trials, is watching other countries with an eye to rolling out the vaccine sooner.
The federal government announced yesterday that it was putting an additional $2.7-million to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told reporters in a briefing that the funding is in addition to the $10.8-million the government put into swine-flu research earlier this summer.
The country has ordered 50 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline, which is contracted to produce pandemic flu vaccine for all Canadians who need and want it. The rush to deliver the vaccine quickly has become all the more pressing with the school year about to begin: Public-health authorities fear the virus will gain strength in September, with the aid of classrooms serving as incubators.
"The sooner we can get the vaccine, the better. We're working with the regulator and the manufacturer to do that," Dr. Butler-Jones told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday. "We're targeting mid-November as the latest."
Canada's vaccine regulator, a branch of Health Canada, will want to be certain that the issues of the 1970s won't resurface before fast-tracking any new drug for a mass vaccination campaign. An outbreak of swine influenza in the United States in 1976 led to fears that a pandemic was emerging, and millions were inoculated. There was no pandemic, but the vaccine was blamed for killing 25 people in the U.S. and causing paralysis in others.
"Even though we're very confident, we're going to be hedging our bets," Dr. Butler-Jones said of the clinical trials.
There is no predicting the severity and timing of the new pandemic. The virus has killed 72 Canadians, and infected thousands of others, although most of those cases have been mild. Of particular concern to health officials is that the H1N1 virus disproportionately targets healthy, young people and pregnant women. Typically, most deaths from seasonal influenza are in the elderly.
The United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said this week that the virus could infect as much as half the population in the U.S., and kill anywhere between 30,000 and 90,000 people.
Dr. Butler-Jones declined to make any predictions for Canada. If the country hadn't changed its practices since the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions worldwide, Canada would see about 150,000 deaths from H1N1, he said. But the measures put in place, including an emergency stockpile of anti-virals, ventilators, hospital care and a vaccine, will prevent the virus from wreaking havoc.
"It will still be messy," Dr. Butler-Jones said. "There's no question about that. But it's nothing like the cataclysmic predictions that some people sometimes make."