Top WHO Official Says Russian Research Important in Preventing Bird Flu Pandemic

[Snowy Owl]

Top WHO Official Says Russian Research Important in Preventing Bird Flu Pandemic
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2007/03/26/whoflu.shtml
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Russian research could be important in the fight against a possible global pandemic of bird flu, the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a top flu official at the World Health Organization as saying on Monday.

Since 2003, when bird flu first hit Asian countries, 281 people have contracted the disease and 169 of them have died, according to latest WHO data. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, sparking a pandemic across the world.

David Heymann said WHO was studying the possibility of using Russian vaccines against the deadly virus. Weakened living vaccines can be produced in greater numbers for a relatively short time. Russian vaccines could also be delivered nasally, which is a further advantage, Heymann said.

WHO said an average of 350 million doses of flu vaccine can currently be produced annually. Although their number could increase to 500 million doses, it falls short of what could be required if a pandemic occurred with a global population of 6.7 billion.

Russia has completed the first phase of clinical trials for a human vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus. Researchers said they had developed vaccine production techniques and commercial production could be started immediately in the event of a pandemic.

No human fatalities or cases of humans infected with the virus have been reported in Russia, where the first outbreaks were registered in southern areas and Siberia in 2005. The latest outbreak occurred near Moscow in February resulting in the culling of thousands of poultry.