Poor "have no access" to vaccine

       Top of the agenda for the World Health Organisation's (WHO)Western Pacific meeting this week will be how to combat the H1N1 flu pandemic in developing nations.
       There are growing fears that poorer countries will not get enough vaccines,despite a pledge last week by the US and eight other nations to make 10% of their flu vaccine supply available to others in need.
       "The developing world will have no access to vaccines for the time being.There are some donations but it is not enough," said Lo Wing-lok, a member of Hong Kong's government scientific committee on emerging diseases.
       "It is very much a matter of equity and the WHO must look at any way to address this."
       Developing countries such as the Philippines are not only unable to produce the vaccine for the H1N1 flu virus but their people are more vulnerable to infection because of poverty, crowded living conditions and lack of healthcare.
       While the Americas still have the highest death toll from the virus, cases are expected to increase.
       In the Western Pacific there are about a million people living in poor conditions without access to healthcare, making them particularly vulnerable, WHO regional director Shin Young-soo said yesterday, on the eve of the WHO meetings in Hong Kong.
       "Hopefully many countries including China and the United States are soon going to vaccinate their own people but that is not the case for many developing countries and it is something we are worried about," he said.
       The WHO and the UN are working on raising a billion dollars to help buy vaccines for countries that need help,he added.
       Mr Shin said some experts estimate that 20% to 30% of the Western Pacific region will eventually be affected by the virus. So far Australia has the highest H1N1 flu death toll in the region, with about 171 deaths, according to the WHO.
       The organisation warned last week that production of vaccines will fall substantially short of the amount needed to protect the global population.
       The WHO put the number of deaths worldwide from the virus at 3,486, up 281 from the previous week.
       Despite new evidence that only one dose of the vaccines currently being tested will be enough for most people,a WHO spokesman said output next year will be "substantially less" than the annual 4.9 billion doses production forecast. The US, Australia, Brazil, UK, France,Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland have said they will make donations to nations without vaccines.