WHO's top official doubts speedy swine flu vaccinations

The world's top health official yesterday said a swine flu vaccine would not be readily available for months, undermining national plans for rapid immunisation against the accelerating pandemic.

The comments by World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan came as Australia and Japan reported a surge in cases of the A(H1N1) virus, and Argentina dramatically upped its death toll from 94 to 137 in just three days.

"There's no vaccine. One should be available soon, in August. But having a vaccine available is not the same as having a vaccine that has proven safe," Ms Chan told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

"Clinical trial data will not be available for another two to three months," she added, contradicting health officials in Britain and elsewhere who said the first stocks would start arriving in August.

WHO director of vaccine research Marie-Paul Kieny, calling the pandemic "unstoppable", had said on Monday that a swine flu vaccine should be available as early as September. Germany said it envisioned having to order some 25 million doses of vaccine to immunise nearly a third of its population.

Australia, the Asia-Pacific region's worst-hit country, has already placed an advance order for 21 million dosages - enough to immunise its entire population.

Australia and Argentina are now in the southern hemispheric winter, and officials fear a major rise in infections when the northern hemisphere enters the colder months and regular influenza becomes rampant.

Italy may have to deal with between three and four million cases of swine flu by March 2010, deputy health minister Ferruccio Fazio said.

He said that by the end of this year some 8.6 million Italians would have been vaccinated against the A(H1N1) virus, with priority given to the most vulnerable and to emergency workers.

Argentina's new death toll made it the worst-hit nation in terms of fatalities after the United States, which has 211 deaths and 37,000 confirmed infections according to the latest tally.

Mexico, the third most afflicted country with 124 deaths and 12,521 infections, said late on Tuesday that swine flu cases were picking up in the southeast, especially in Chiapas state near Guatemala.

Health ministers from six South American countries were to meet Wednesday to seek a coordinated response. Argentina was to host the meeting of ministers from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Not including the latest figures from Argentina, the WHO's global death toll from swine flu stands at 429 with more than 94,500 infections tallied worldwide.

Australia said its total of swine flu cases had reached 10,387, more than 10 per cent of the WHO's global total. The country suspects swine flu was the culprit in the deaths of some 20 people.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the real number could be much higher, and that 123 people were in hospital including 58 in intensive care.