GOVERNMENTS should consider stockpiling vaccine against H5N1 bird flu now, before a pandemic starts, a World Health Organization report out next month will advise.
The change in policy reflects growing fears that an H5 pandemic is likely, and that there will not be time to produce much vaccine once it starts. “When we realised H5N1 is not going to be eradicated in poultry in Asia for at least another couple of years, that made the risk of H5 much higher,” Klaus Stöhr, head of the WHO’s influenza team, told New Scientist.
The US has already contracted manufacturers to…
