WHO DONATES MILLIONS OF DOSES OF SURPLUS MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, Denmark's Information Reports
Last Updated on Monday, 28 December 2009 12:09 Monday, 28 December 2009 12:06
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WHO DONATES MILLIONS OF DOSES OF SURPLUS MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
AN ENORMOUS SURPLUS OF H1N1 VACCINES IS BEING DONATED TO WHO.
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION DISTRIBUTES MILLIONS OF DOSES TO POOR COUNTRIES.
WHO GETS RID OF A POLITICAL PROBLEM, SAY CRITICS
By Louise Voller, Kristian Villesen
December 22 2009
180 millions of doses of surplus H1N1 vaccines are in the process of being donated to WHO, which will distribute them to 95 countries that are “vulnerable to the pandemic.”
Afghanistan, Aserbajdsjan and Mongolia are among the 35 countries which have asked for free vaccines and signed an agreement to develop national plans for a pandemic.
However, several experts have criticised the free vaccines.
By getting rid of the enormous stocks of vaccines, WHO at the same time frees itself of political problem, says, among others, Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist at the Cochrane independent research center.
“ Why do they give the vaccines to the developing countries at all? The pandemic has been called off in most parts of the world. The greatest threat in poor countries right now is heart and circulatory diseases while the virus figures at the bottom of the list. What is the medical reason for donating 180 million doses?”
FLU IS A SMALL THREAT
The member countries have millions of doses of H1N1 in stock because of the contracts with the vaccine producers, which were signed before the pandemic broke out, and so before the scope of the pandemic was known.
France bought 94 million doses but has so far used only used three millions, while Great Britain bought 60 million doses. Of these, a little over five millions have been used. Norway and Germany have decided to donate the vaccines to countries, which cannot afford to buy the vaccines.
Professor for virological diseases at the central Danish hospital, Rigshospitalet, Jens Lundgren, says: “My first thought is that the developing countries have greater problems to fight than this flu. If you really want to do something for the developing countries, you should probably do something else,” says Jens Lundgren.
Claus Hancke, a medical doctor who is specialized in ordinary medicine, is also wondering:
“From my point of view the developing countries have no need whatsoever for H1N1 vaccine. Flu is a minor problem in countries where there is a lot of sunshine. Furthermore it has turned out, that the swine flu is not particularly dangerous,” says Claus Hancke, adding:
“It seems we would like to find a solution to the problem of waste, and are doing so by sending the surplus vaccine to the developing countries. Following this logic it seems to be better to inject the waste into people instead of destroying it. It is grotesque,” says Claus Hancke, who early on has advised people not to take the vaccine as the H1N1 jab is not properly tested and possibly may have unknown sideeffects.
WHO SURVEY?
WHO has conducted workshops in all regions to help the countries to establish plans for pandemics and prepare for the arrival of the vaccines. The plans for the pandemic contains instructions concerning who is going to receive the vaccine, how it is going to be administered and the recommendations to inoculate health staff first of all.
Still the administration of the vaccine is the greatest challenge, believes Tom Jefferson from the Cochrane Center.
“It is extremely important to be able to monitor new medicine when you dump millions of doses on a society. You have to survey both for effect and side effects, and how is that supposed to be done in Afghanistan?” he says and elaborates:
“The best explanation I can imagine is that WHO is trying to reduce the enormous stocks of H1N1. The greatest loser in this story about the pandemic is the credibility of the public health systems and the WHO. We are going to pay an enormous price for this when we one day have a real crisis in public health, and nobody trusts the health system any longer.
Credibility is the true victim”.
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