Melanie A. Staley
Oct. 22, 2009
1:30pm
Although the US government originally promised its people that 120 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine would be prepared by late October, only a fraction of this has actually been produced. There have been roughly 13 million doses made available thus far in the season. This is being blamed on the technology used to produce the vaccine, which requires up to six months for production. The common procedure involves the use of chicken eggs, though many are questioning if this technique is outdated. In addition, H1N1 reproduces very slowly in chicken eggs, proving to be a rather ineffective method for vaccine production of this virus. It’s likely that the majority of the vaccines produced this year will come too late in the season to have a significant effect against the spread of the virus. The article sites a study done by Perdue University, which estimates that more than 60% of the US population will be infected with H1N1 by the end of the year.
This article raises a couple of important issues. One obvious issue is the need for improvements in vaccine-production technologies. The US is a highly industrialized nation, yet its current technologies are proving ineffective against the H1N1 pandemic. There needs to be increased cooperation and sharing of information between researchers across the world so that more people may benefit from up-to-date and effective technology. Secondly, there is the issue of the estimated spread of the virus by the end of the year. Sixty percent is an alarming figure. I wonder about the risk of infection for countries that are less developed, and those that are even less likely than the US to have a sufficient number of doses by the end of the season.
1 comment:
I am so not surprised that this is occurring. In April, we all got taken back at the onset of H1N1 and the severity of the disease. As always we are playing catch-up and all we can do is wait and stay on top of our own health and be aware.
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