Amid a slow process and the fact that locally produced vaccines for swine flu cannot be administered to people under one year of age, the government intends to purchase more swine flu vaccines from a foreign manufacturer and to distribute more Tamiflu to local hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
“If this plan works out, swine flu vaccines will be available for the public sometime in October,” CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said, adding that locally produced vaccines were expected to be ready sometime in November.
Local biopharmaceutical firm Adimmune Corp (國光生技) had won the Department of Health’s tender to produce 10 million doses of vaccine, but as the company has no previous experience producing it, public concerns about its safety and effectiveness, as well as whether the locally produced version would be enough to help slow the potential epidemic, have not been assuaged.
Furthermore, the Adimmune vaccine will only be effective in people above the age of one, he said.
“Babies [under the age of one] will not be protected by this vaccine, I’m afraid. That was also one of the reasons why we are considering purchasing vaccines from foreign manufacturers [of the type] that can be administered to babies,” he said.
Necessary experiments and analysis must be completed before the locally produced vaccines become available for the public, he said.
“It is not fast enough. But, we are nevertheless blessed, because many countries must rely on foreign assistance to acquire vaccines,” Kuo said.
Prior to the arrival of those vaccines, Kuo said the CDC would distribute Tamiflu to more local hospitals.
“At least 300 major hospitals and 150 local clinics have Tamiflu stocks at present. We intend to triple that number,” Kuo said.
The hospitals and clinics where Tamiflu will be available for prescription will be announced sometime this week, he said.
Meanwhile, Kuo called on the public not to abuse the 1922 hotline, which was designed to provide assistance to people who fear they may have contracted the virus.
“More than 1,000 people called our 1922 toll-free line for general inquiries about flu symptoms. Please, do yourself a favor, you should ask your doctor if you have such questions — don’t call us,” Kuo said.
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