Giuseppe
Emeritus
Options for the use of human H5N1 influenza vaccines and the WHO H5N1 vaccine stockpile
Geneva, Switzerland, 1?3 October 2007
Executive summary
Human infections with highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses present a serious and highly complex public health challenge.
In May 1997, the first human case of H5N1 virus infection was identified and by the end of the same year a total of 18 cases had been confirmed.
In 2003 and 2004, H5N1 viruses re-emerged and spread rapidly among poultry in several Asian countries with associated human infections.
Since February 2003, millions of birds have been infected and more than 360 human cases recorded, with more than 230 deaths in 12 countries in
Africa, Asia and Europe.
Currently, H5N1 is an avian pathogen that has had a devastating agricultural and economic impact on the communities it has affected.
Although it causes infections relatively rarely in people, when they occur, such infections have been frequently fatal.
However, H5N1 viruses continue to evolve and could develop into a much greater public health threat if they acquire the ability to cause sustained and widespread human-to-human transmission.
Such a transformation could result in the next influenza pandemic.
Addressing H5N1 as an agricultural, zoonotic and potential pandemic threat has proved to be complex and problematic for public health and animal health agencies and authorities.
The development and potentially imminent availability of approved human vaccines against H5N1 marks an important milestone in global efforts to address this threat.
As with other influenza vaccines, the development of effective H5N1 vaccines is notable because vaccination is potentially the best form of protection by preventing or reducing the chance of severe illness or death in people exposed to the H5N1 virus.
This is true both in the current non-pandemic situation (in which some individuals or populations are at elevated risk of zoonotic infection with avian H5N1 viruses) and in the future should H5N1 viruses evolve into a human pathogen capable of causing a pandemic.
(...)
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http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/WHO_HSE_EPR_GIP_2008_1d.pdf
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Geneva, Switzerland, 1?3 October 2007
Executive summary
Human infections with highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses present a serious and highly complex public health challenge.
In May 1997, the first human case of H5N1 virus infection was identified and by the end of the same year a total of 18 cases had been confirmed.
In 2003 and 2004, H5N1 viruses re-emerged and spread rapidly among poultry in several Asian countries with associated human infections.
Since February 2003, millions of birds have been infected and more than 360 human cases recorded, with more than 230 deaths in 12 countries in
Africa, Asia and Europe.
Currently, H5N1 is an avian pathogen that has had a devastating agricultural and economic impact on the communities it has affected.
Although it causes infections relatively rarely in people, when they occur, such infections have been frequently fatal.
However, H5N1 viruses continue to evolve and could develop into a much greater public health threat if they acquire the ability to cause sustained and widespread human-to-human transmission.
Such a transformation could result in the next influenza pandemic.
Addressing H5N1 as an agricultural, zoonotic and potential pandemic threat has proved to be complex and problematic for public health and animal health agencies and authorities.
The development and potentially imminent availability of approved human vaccines against H5N1 marks an important milestone in global efforts to address this threat.
As with other influenza vaccines, the development of effective H5N1 vaccines is notable because vaccination is potentially the best form of protection by preventing or reducing the chance of severe illness or death in people exposed to the H5N1 virus.
This is true both in the current non-pandemic situation (in which some individuals or populations are at elevated risk of zoonotic infection with avian H5N1 viruses) and in the future should H5N1 viruses evolve into a human pathogen capable of causing a pandemic.
(...)
-
http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/WHO_HSE_EPR_GIP_2008_1d.pdf
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