Greece cancels orders for influenza H1N1 vaccine
Tuesday, January 19th of 2010 09:23 EDT
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece canceled orders for more than 12 million doses of vaccine against H1N1 pandemic influenza to reduce costs, due to its rising budget deficit, said the health minister of the country.
Greece has sufficient supply for its population of 11 million won 3.7 million for vaccines, said the minister Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou late Monday.
The mediterranean country, which gets about 15 million tourists per year, has reported nearly 100 deaths from the virus commonly known as swine flu. So far, 360,000 people have been vaccinated, according to government figures.
"In a period of economic difficulties and efforts to economize, it is important to save funds," said Xenogiannakopoulou.
Reduce the costs of medical care and hospitals is key to the attempt by the government for ordering the public finances after the budget deficit climbed to 12.7 percent of GDP last year.
The previous conservative government of Greece had allocated 40 million euros (57.59 million) to buy 16 million doses of vaccines to Novartis, Glaxo and Sanofi.
Several governments have begun reducing their orders for vaccines because the pandemic is not proved as deadly as originally feared because most people need only one dose, not two, to be fully immunized.
(1 d?lar= 0,6945 euros) (1 dollar = 0.6945 euro)
(Reporting by Harry Papachristou, editing by Will Dunham Spanish)
Source: Reuters
http://translate.google.es/translat...le/topNews/idLTASIE60I0JD20100119&sl=es&tl=en
Tuesday, January 19th of 2010 09:23 EDT
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece canceled orders for more than 12 million doses of vaccine against H1N1 pandemic influenza to reduce costs, due to its rising budget deficit, said the health minister of the country.
Greece has sufficient supply for its population of 11 million won 3.7 million for vaccines, said the minister Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou late Monday.
The mediterranean country, which gets about 15 million tourists per year, has reported nearly 100 deaths from the virus commonly known as swine flu. So far, 360,000 people have been vaccinated, according to government figures.
"In a period of economic difficulties and efforts to economize, it is important to save funds," said Xenogiannakopoulou.
Reduce the costs of medical care and hospitals is key to the attempt by the government for ordering the public finances after the budget deficit climbed to 12.7 percent of GDP last year.
The previous conservative government of Greece had allocated 40 million euros (57.59 million) to buy 16 million doses of vaccines to Novartis, Glaxo and Sanofi.
Several governments have begun reducing their orders for vaccines because the pandemic is not proved as deadly as originally feared because most people need only one dose, not two, to be fully immunized.
(1 d?lar= 0,6945 euros) (1 dollar = 0.6945 euro)
(Reporting by Harry Papachristou, editing by Will Dunham Spanish)
Source: Reuters
http://translate.google.es/translat...le/topNews/idLTASIE60I0JD20100119&sl=es&tl=en