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1. [verwijderd] 30 oktober 2006 08:14

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   Glaxo speaks to UK about bird flu vaccine, paper says
   Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:51pm ET
   LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) is in talks with the British government about a nationwide bird flu vaccination after signing a similar deal with Singapore, the Times newspaper reported on Monday.
   Chief Executive J. P. Garnier met British Prime Minister Tony Blair and finance minister Gordon Brown this month to discuss the possibility of stockpiling tens of millions of doses of the firm's H5N1 vaccine, it said, without citing sources.
   Glaxo had already reached a deal with Singapore, the Times said without revealing any details.
   The firm was also close to singing a contract with France and had spoken to the U.S. government about the possibility of a mass vaccination program although no imminent decision was on the cards, the newspaper added.
   A spokesman for Glaxo was not immediately available for comment.
   Last week, Europe's biggest drugmaker said it expected to sign more contracts to supply governments with its experimental vaccine for humans following a deal with Switzerland.
   The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health has ordered 8 million doses of the vaccine to protect its entire population in the event of an influenza pandemic, which many experts fear may be triggered by bird flu.
   The vaccine has not yet won regulatory approval but Glaxo plans to file it with the European Medicines Agency by the end of 2006.
   Britain's population is about 60 million while Singapore has a population of 4.4 million.
   today.reuters.com/news/articlebusines...
   _RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-BIRDFLU-GLAXO-VACCINE-DC.XML&from=business
   
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   www.iex.nl/forum/topic.asp?forum=228&...
   www.iex.nl/forum/topic.asp?forum=228&...
2. [verwijderd] 30 oktober 2006 10:48

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   quote:

   gogogoo schreef:

   Wie kan er meer zeggen over de verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen de Vero cell technology t.o.v. de PER.C6 technology?
   

   Stukje uit 2004:
   
   1) Hoe is Crucell’s PER.C6(tm) technologie te
   vergelijken met andere cellijnen voor
   vaccinproductie, zoals VERO en MDCK?
   
   A: Op dit moment worden systemen voor de
   productie van griepvaccin ontwikkeld,
   gebaseerd op African Green Monkey (VERO)
   cellen en Madin Canine Kidney (MDCK) cellen.
   Deze cellen moeten vaak groeien op
   microcarriers (kleine bolletjes waaraan cellen
   zich tijdens de productie hechten), wat het
   productieproces duurder en moeilijker
   opschaalbaar maakt. Daarentegen groeien
   PER.C6(tm) cellen goed in suspensie en zijn
   makkelijk op te schalen, wat de productie van
   kostenefficiënte vaccins in grote hoeveelheden
   mogelijk maakt. Daarnaast is de productie van
   virussen op VERO cellen aanwijsbaar lager dan
   de opbrengsten op PER.C6(tm) cellen. Crucell
   onderhoudt een uitgebreid registratiedossier
   (de zgn. Biologics Master File) voor PER.C6(tm)
   bij de U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wat
   de registratie makkelijker maakt van
   biofarmaceutische producten die onze
   licentienemers of wij ontwikkelen met behulp
   van de PER.C6(tm) technologie.
   
   hugin.info/132631/R/983186/146333.pdf
   
   Influenza vaccines are classically produced on embryonated chicken eggs. The safety and efficacy of such vaccines is proven, but various challenges have led the biopharmaceutical industry and the scientific community to explore other ways of producing influenza vaccines. PER.C6® cells grow well in suspension and are easily scalable, potentially permitting the production of cost-efficient vaccines in large quantities. A key benefit of PER.C6® cells is that they have a safety profile that is unequaled by any other cell used for the manufacturing of influenza vaccines, such as African Green Monkey (VERO) cells and Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells. PER.C6® cells can produce all influenza strains that we have tested, both human strains and the avian strains that may present a pandemic threat.
   www.crucell.com/R_and_D-Clinical_Deve...
   
3. gogogoo 30 oktober 2006 11:08

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   Dank je wel flosz. Weer wat geleerd.
4. [verwijderd] 30 oktober 2006 17:20

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   Dynavax hoping to kill many flus with one shot
   WITH UNIVERSAL VACCINE, BIOTECH COMBINES DOSE
   By Steve Johnson
   Mercury News
   
   Maria J. Avila / Mercury News
   Dynavax Senior Research Associate Dorice Yalda works on developing a small dose of universal flu vaccine at the company's Berkeley labratory.
   More photosOn the hunt for a vaccine against bird flu, biotech companies are coming up with leads on something even better: a universal vaccine that works against all kinds of flu.
   
   Some claim it's possible the bird-flu medicines they are developing could also provide improved treatments for the common winter flu and even allow people to get flu shots only once every few years.
   
   Experts caution that much still needs to be done. But some claim to have found ways to boost flu vaccine potency by using special additives. Others have devised methods to manufacture medicines quickly in an emergency and to tackle the problem of the virus mutating into drug-resistant forms.
   
   Since the bird-flu virus took its first human life in Hong Kong in 1997, it has killed a relatively small number of people -- 151 people in 10 countries -- compared with the 36,000 people killed annually by the common flu in this country alone. Still, many experts believe bird flu will inevitably develop into a form that could spread across the globe in a so-called pandemic that could leave many millions dead.
   
   ``Someday there will be a pandemic flu,'' said Anthony Fauci, head of the federal government's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ``Sooner or later we're going to get it.''
   
   At least 28 bird-flu vaccines are under development by 13 different companies worldwide, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations. One of the most intriguing of these new medicines is a so-called universal vaccine, which some people believe could be useful against various strains of bird flu as well as seasonal flu.
   
   Drug companies typically design their seasonal flu vaccines to generate antibodies that neutralize two proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, on flu viruses. But because these two proteins are prone to mutate, new vaccines tailored to their changing characteristics usually have to be made every year.
   
   That variability could prove devastating if the bird-flu virus suddenly mutates into a form that spreads quickly among people instead of just birds. By the time vaccines could be manufactured to target the new virus, thousands of people could die.
   
   However, scientists at Dynavax Technologies in Berkeley believe they have found a possible solution. They have developed a vaccine that targets two other common flu proteins, the nucleoprotein and matrix protein, which tend to remain stable. That way, even if some bird-flu virus proteins mutate, Dynavax scientists say, their vaccine still would be effective against the proteins that don't change.
   
   Like most other drugs in the works to counter bird flu, the Dynavax vaccine is in an early stage of development. But on Oct. 20, the company presented data at the Second International Conference on Influenza Vaccines for the World in Vienna that showed it was effective in mice and baboons.
   
   If it also proves effective in people, it could be used for bird flu or seasonal flu, said Gary Van Nest, Dynavax's vice president of preclinical research. Moreover, because the vaccine presumably would work no matter how the flu virus mutates, one shot of it every three years or so might be sufficient to protect a person, he said.
   
   As an added safeguard, however, Dynavax plans to give its vaccine to people along with a standard vaccine that targets the mutating proteins.
   
   ``The best approach is to combine it with what we know works pretty well and make it work very well,'' Van Nest said.
   
   Scientists at Vical in San Diego have reported progress with a similar vaccine. And researchers at the University of Bath in England are trying to develop mutation-resistant versions of anti-viral drugs -- such as Tamiflu, developed by Gilead Sciences of Foster City -- which would be used to treat people already infected with bird flu.
   
   Another big problem vaccine manufacturers face with bird flu is its novelty.
   
   Because most people have been exposed to the seasonal flu virus at some time in their lives, they have developed some built-in immunity to it. But because bird flu is new, no such previously developed immunity exists.
   
   Consequently, unless some way can be found to boost peoples' immune systems, health officials fear people would need relatively large amounts of bird-flu vaccine. That could require huge stockpiles of the vaccine and perhaps force people to get more than one shot.
   
   So a number of companies including Novartis -- which acquired Chiron and its Emeryville vaccine research facilities earlier this year -- are adding boosters called adjuvants to their bird-flu vaccines. Made of water and shark liver oil, Novartis' booster ``kind of gets the body riled up a little more so the immune response is better,'' said company spokeswoman Alison Marquiss.
   
   Even with boosters, some bird-flu vaccines tested so far require high doses to get an adequate immune response. But in July, GlaxoSmithKline of England announced that its adjuvant-boosted vaccine triggered a strong immune reaction in about 80 percent of 400 people who received it in a study.
   
   Yet another concern is how to manufacture enough doses of bird-flu vaccine quickly for the billions of people around the world who might need it. The typical method of making flu vaccines, which partly involve growing the virus in fertilized chicken eggs, has serious drawbacks.
   
   If a bird-flu outbreak occurred, vaccine manufacturers would have to obtain millions of eggs on short notice. But the virus could kill many of the chickens counted on to produce those eggs. Moreover, manufacturers can't just snap their fingers to bolster their egg supplies, said George Kemble, vice president of vaccine research & development for MedImmune of Maryland. MedImmune is working on potential bird-flu drugs at its Santa Clara and Mountain View facilities.
   
   ``If we want to increase the number of eggs, we have to tell the farmers many months in advance,'' he said.
   
   To avoid that problem, federal authorities in May awarded the Bay Area operations of Novartis and MedImmune a total of nearly $400 million over next five years to make vaccines from a process using mammal cell cultures.
   
   The ingredients for such cultures can be stored in freezers and be instantly available in the event of a health emergency. They also tend to be less bulky than eggs. As a result, scientists can make vaccines more quickly with cells than with eggs, Kemble said.
   
   Cell-based vaccines also seem to work as well as those derived from eggs, according to data Novartis presented Oct. 19 at the Vienna flu conference. In a study involving more than 2,600 people, in which some were given a cell-based seasonal flu vaccine and others a egg-based version, Novartis said it found no difference in their immune responses.
   
   As promising as such developments are, however, the world would be woefully unprepared if a bird-flu outbreak were to occur in the near future, health authorities warn.
   
   Even if companies significantly expanded their manufacturing operations over the next three years and ran their production lines 24 hours a day, it wouldn't be sufficient to meet the threat, according to a s
5. [verwijderd] 31 oktober 2006 09:05

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   Uit de Volkskrant
   Gepubliceerd 7:29 31 oktober 2006
   
   www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/article3...
   
   Gevaarlijke variant vogelgriep rukt op
   Van onze verslaggever Broer Scholtens
   AMSTERDAM - Een nieuwe, gevaarlijke variant van het vogelgriepvirus H5N1 verspreidt zich razendsnel vanuit China over Azië. De variant ‘overwoekert’ in de pluimveestapel andere, minder ziekmakende griepvirusstammen. In China bieden bestaande pluimveevaccins geen bescherming tegen deze nieuwe H5N1-stam.
   Dat stellen Chinese en Amerikaanse onderzoekers in een artikel dat dinsdag op de website verschijnt van het Amerikaanse wetenschapstijdschrift PNAS.
   De onderzoekers van de universiteit van Hongkong en van het St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis (VS) verzamelden een jaar lang meer dan vijftigduizend pluimveemonsters op verschillende markten in het zuiden van China.
   In meer dan 2 procent van de monsters werd het H5N1-vogelgriepvirus aangetroffen, vooral bij ganzen en eenden. Het jaar daarvoor was 0,9 procent van het pluimvee besmet.
   Eén type virusstam bleek het vaakst (in meer dan tweederde van de gevallen) voor te komen. Deze Fujian-stam beconcurreert sinds oktober vorig jaar met succes andere, onschuldigere stammen. Dat gebeurt niet alleen in het zuiden van China, maar inmiddels ook in andere Aziatische landen, zoals Laos, Maleisië en Thailand, waarschuwen de onderzoekers.
   De dominante Fujian-stam verspreidt zich snel door de pluimveestapel en dieren overlijden vaak al binnen een dag na besmetting. Bovendien hebben bestaande dierenvaccins er geen vat op.
   De virusdeeltjes hechten weliswaar moeilijk aan menselijke cellen, maar in het zuiden van China zijn toch al 22 mensen met de bewuste stam besmet geraakt. Er is volgens de onderzoekers gerede kans dat de Fujian-variant verder evolueert tot een pandemische virusstam waar wereldwijd veel mensen aan zullen overlijden.
   Volgens een van de Amerikaanse onderzoekers, viroloog Robert Webster, lopen door het intensieve contact tussen mens en besmet pluimvee, met name in Zuidoost-Azië, ook mensen een steeds grotere kans dodelijk besmet te raken. Uit recente cijfers van de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO) blijkt dat niet alleen het aantal besmette mensen toeneemt, maar ook dat er ook steeds meer mensen (ongeveer 60 procent) overlijden aan een besmetting met een H5N1-virusstam.
   De afgelopen tien maanden stierven al bijna tweemaal zoveel – in totaal 73 – personen als in heel 2005. Bijna 60 procent daarvan woonde in Indonesië, waar het aantal besmettingen het afgelopen jaar explosief is gestegen.
   
6. aossa 31 oktober 2006 13:09

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   Sanofi Q3-06 resultaten
   
   Flu-vaccine delay zie plaatje in attachment.
   
   en.sanofi-aventis.com/press/events/20...
   
   press release:
   en.sanofi-aventis.com/Images/061031_c...
   
   presentation slides:
   en.sanofi-aventis.com/Images/061031_P...
   
   

   Bijlage:
7. [verwijderd] 31 oktober 2006 13:16

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   Cdc to Evaluate Novavax's Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Candidate
   Tuesday October 31, 7:00 am ET
   First Opportunity To Test Novel Vaccine Against Live Virus
   
   MALVERN, Pa., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (Nasdaq: NVAX - News) - Novavax, Inc. said today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has agreed to evaluate the company's H5N1 pandemic influenza vaccine candidate, including pre-clinical testing of the vaccine against live bird flu virus.
   ADVERTISEMENT
   
   
   "We are pleased that the government has agreed to test the protective efficacy of our vaccine candidate," said Dr. Rick Bright, Novavax's Vice President of Global Influenza Programs. "The CDC, one of a handful of premier infectious disease institutions, has the unique ability to challenge our vaccine with live avian influenza virus."
   
   Under terms of a Cooperative Research Agreement, Novavax will provide the CDC with a supply of the company's virus-like particle (VLP) H5N1 vaccine. Over the past year, Novavax has assembled a significant dossier of pre-clinical data supporting its vaccine which will serve as the basis for the company's investigational new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Novavax is planning to begin human clinical trials using the vaccine during the first half of 2007.
   
   "It is absolutely critical that we are prepared for a potential outbreak of pandemic influenza," said Dr. Terrence Tumpey, Senior Microbiologist at the CDC. "Vaccines like these hold a lot of promise because they offer an attractive alternative to the existing egg-dependent methods for the manufacture of influenza vaccine and have a shorter production lead time which is urgently needed at this time."
   
   Last year, Novavax began collaborating with the CDC to evaluate a vaccine to protect against the H9N2, another subtype of bird flu. "This working relationship further validates the importance of our influenza program and underscores the confidence we have in our influenza VLP vaccine," Dr. Bright said.
   
   VLPs are nearly identical to a virus but do not have the virus's genetic material required for replication or infection. When inoculated into the body, these particles have the ability to attach to cells and trigger a natural immune response that is capable of protecting against viral infection.
   
   
8. aossa 31 oktober 2006 13:19

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   quote:

   aossa schreef:

   Sanofi Q3-06 resultaten
   Flu-vaccine delay zie plaatje in attachment.
   

   Sorry verkeerd draadje.
9. [verwijderd] 31 oktober 2006 17:25

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   Vaccine-Resistant Bird Flu Spreading in Asia
   10.30.06, 12:00 AM ET
   
   MONDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- A new strain of vaccine-resistant H5N1 bird flu virus has emerged in China and is spreading through southeast Asia, Hong Kong researchers report.
   "The implications are that current control measures are ineffective with dealing with the evolutionary changes that H5N1 undergoes," warned Dr. Yi Guan, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Diseases at the University of Hong Kong and lead author of a report in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
   
   The new strain has become dominant throughout the region, replacing other variants of the virus, the report said.
   
   "We think that this virus is likely to have already instigated a third wave of H5N1 infection in this region, as it is already widespread in southern China and has also been detected in other neighboring countries," Guan said.
   
   The reason for the new strain's dominance is that "it was not as easily affected as other strains by the avian vaccine used to prevent H5 infection," the Hong Kong expert said. "What this means is that H5 avian vaccines are not able to prevent infection by this virus as efficiently as they do with other strains of H5N1."
   
   "This is the kind of information you can get from cooperative surveillance," noted Karen Lacourciere, a program officer in influenza at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "You can identify possible infection sources and points of intervention for a possible pandemic."
   
   The new strain was also responsible for recent human infections by the avian flu virus in both rural and urban areas of China, the Hong Kong team reported. Human infections in urban areas could lead to a serious outbreak, challenging current plans aimed at preventing a human pandemic, they said.
   
   The immediate danger is to stocks of chickens and other poultry, Guan said. "This study suggests that reliance on a single vaccine against H5N1 over a number of years, which is currently practiced, is unlikely to adequately control this disease in poultry," he said. "Therefore, the methods of poultry vaccination must be addressed."
   
   China has a compulsory program of chicken vaccination, but the new strain evades that program, the researchers said. The fear is that it could spread to infect poultry throughout Asia and Europe, and perhaps jump to infect humans.
   
   "The most important thing that can be done now is to increase systematic influenza surveillance in poultry over those affected regions," Guan said. "By doing this, we will be able to determine the dynamics of the spread of this virus."
   
   In addition, the strains of bird flu virus used in poultry vaccines should be assessed regularly and changed if necessary, he said. "It is also possible that poultry vaccines may need to be tailored to effectively neutralize the particular strain of virus that is present in a particular region," Guan said.
   
   Like Guan, Lacourciere said the finding "emphasizes the need for early surveillance. Early detection is important for understanding of the transition and spread of the virus."
   
   "We continue to look at vaccine strategies," she added. "We want a vaccine that is broadly protective against different strains. Looking at preserved proteins might make possible a vaccine that offers universal protection."
   
   More information
   
   There's more on bird flu from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   
   
10. [verwijderd] 31 oktober 2006 17:30

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    Bird flu mutates to remain a pandemic risk
    
    October 31 2006 at 12:42PM
    
    Hong Kong - Experts have renewed their warnings of a bird flu pandemic after a new resistant strain of the H5N1 virus deadly to humans and poultry was found to have spread throughout the region.
    
    Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States believe the new virus - dubbed the "Fujian-like" strain - may have mutated in response to vaccination programmes designed to halt the disease in farm flocks.
    
    "The development of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses in poultry in Eurasia, accompanied with the increase in human infections in 2006, suggests the virus has not been effectively contained and that the pandemic threat persists," said a report in the American academic publication "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".
    
    "Studies suggest that H5N1 seroconversion (development of antibodies in blood serum as a result of infection or immunisation) in market poultry is low and that vaccination may have facilitated the selection of the Fujian-like sublineage," it added.
    
    The report - co-written by Hong Kong University's microbiology supremo Yi Guan, who has led worldwide study into the disease - said the strain had emerged in 2005, and had already spread throughout mainland China, as well as to Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia.
    
    The Fujian-like strain was now the primary variant of the fast-changing virus throughout Asia, and was quickly replacing strains that had emerged in Hong Kong and Vietnam, it said.
    
    "Analyses revealed the emergence and predominance of a previously uncharacterised H5N1 virus sublineage (Fujian-like) in poultry since late 2005," it said.
    
    "The predominance of this virus over a large geographical region within a short period directly challenges current disease control measures," the report added.
    
    The H5N1 strain of bird flu was first reported to have evolved into a form lethal to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, when six people died of the then mysterious disease.
    
    A renewed outbreak in 2003 among poultry flocks in Asia triggered a wave of infections that has left more than 150 people dead throughout the world.
    
    The World Health Organisation has expressed fears a bird flu pandemic was almost certain in the near future, and in a worst case scenario could kill millions worldwide. - Sapa-AFP
    
    
11. [verwijderd] 31 oktober 2006 17:33

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    New flu strain expected to infect birds worldwide
    By JEFF NESMITH
    Cox News Service
    
    Tuesday, October 31, 2006
    
    WASHINGTON — A new strain of the H5N1 influenza virus has emerged in China and is poised to cause another global wave of infection among birds and human beings who come into close contact with them, scientists said Monday.
    
    The new "bird flu" variant does not appear at this point to pose a greater risk to humans than earlier strains, said a leading influenza expert, Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
    
    But he added that the emergence of the new strain shows that H5N1 is still mutating, a process that experts fear could eventually convert it into a form capable of causing a deadly and freely spreading human disease.
    
    "The virus is continuing to evolve," Webster said in a telephone interview. "It would probably take an accumulation of many changes like this for a virus that is capable of spreading among human beings to develop, but it is continuing to drift and continuing to evolve."
    
    The new form of the virus has become the primary version of the bird flu in parts of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand, Webster and scientists at the University of Hong Kong reported in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
    
    Webster said scientists believe that 23 human cases known to be caused by the new strain of virus - all in China except for one in Thailand - came from direct contact with infected poultry.
    
    Although H5N1 does not spread easily from human to human, there have been isolated reports of human "clusters," suggesting that at times human transmission has occurred.
    
    Webster and his colleagues reported that they tracked the appearance and spread of the new strain by monitoring fowl sold in live poultry markets in urban areas of southern China.
    
    They said that similar surveillance programs in northern China and other Asian countries are "urgently required ... to avert a pandemic."
    
    Webster said samples of the new strain have been turned over to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in updating preliminary vaccines being stockpiled for emergency use in the event of a human pandemic.
    
    Karen Lacourciere, an official of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funds the Hong Kong surveillance program, said the report underscores the importance of constantly monitoring the virus among birds, as well as humans.
    
    The only program of that kind now under way is the one by Webster and his Hong Kong colleagues.
    
    She said the institute is negotiating contracts to support similar surveillance programs in other areas of Asia, as well as the United States.
    
    Frederick Hayden, a University of Virginia virologist working full time with the World Health Organization's pandemic preparedness program, said the genetic changes described by Webster and his colleagues "appear to be unprecedented, and we don't know what's driving that."
    
    He noted that the variant strain appears to have "escaped" from a compulsory poultry vaccination program instituted in China last year. The program may have killed off competing versions of the virus and allowed this one to spread faster, Hayden said.
    
    Since 2003, a total of 256 confirmed human cases of avian influenza have been reported to WHO. Of these, 151 victims have died.
    
    Jeff Nesmith is a Washington correspondent for Cox Newspapers.
    
    
12. [verwijderd] 1 november 2006 17:18

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    WHO blasts Chinese government for not sharing samples of new bird flu strain
    The Associated PressPublished: November 1, 2006
    
    BEIJING: The World Health Organization criticized China's Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday for not sharing samples of a newly discovered strain of bird flu, complicating the health watchdog's efforts to track the virus' spread.
    
    Scientific research released this week said that the new strain — called H5N1 Fujian-like — had spread widely over the past year, being found in almost all poultry outbreaks and some human cases in China and now becoming prevalent in Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
    
    Despite that prevalence, the Agriculture Ministry has not given the WHO any samples of the new strain, said Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert at the WHO's Beijing office.
    
    "There's a stark contrast between what we're hearing from the researchers and what the Ministry of Agriculture says," Hall said in a telephone interview. "Unless the ministry tell us what's going on and shares viruses on a regular basis, we will be doing diagnostics on strains that are old.
    
    China to scrutinize its executionsWhile new strains of viruses emerge regularly, health experts need to know when one becomes dominant in order to develop methods to detect and fight the disease, said Hall.
    
    The ministry's reluctance has been an ongoing source of aggravation at the WHO. International health experts have repeatedly complained about Chinese foot-dragging in cooperating on investigating emerging diseases like bird flu and the SARS pneumonia.
    
    Telephones at the Agriculture Ministry were not answered on Wednesday and it did not immediately respond to faxed questions.
    
    Some countries are slow to share genetic information or samples of viruses because they fear they will be pushed aside in the global race to produce a lucrative vaccine.
    
    "This is a new disease. Nobody knows how to tackle it, nobody in the world has all the answers," Hall said. "But if they share ... then we will all gain from that."
    
    She said the ministry has not shared bird flu virus samples from poultry since 2004 — a key step in developing diagnostic tools and vaccines.
    
    The study by Chinese and American scientists released this week found that one out of every 30 geese and one out of every 30 ducks in live markets tested positive for H5N1 in six southern Chinese provinces during yearlong surveillance, which began in June 2005.
    
    In that same period, however, the ministry reported only three outbreaks in those same provinces, Hall said.
    
    The study was conducted in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Hunan, densely populated provinces where people live in close proximity to ducks, pigs and other farm animals, making the area a common breeding ground for flu viruses.
    
    Out of 108 virus samples taken from infected poultry between April and June of this year, 103 — or 95 percent — had the Fujian-like strain, according to the results of the study reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
    
    "The ministry needs to tell us just how many substrains are circulating in China and whether some strains are dominant or becoming more dominant," Hall said.
    
    The H5N1 flu has devastated poultry in China and several other southeast Asian countries and also has claimed more than 150 human lives. Most of the people affected lived close to flocks of chickens or other poultry.
    
    Public health authorities fear that the virus will mutate into a form that can spread easily among people, raising the potential for a worldwide pandemic that could kill millions. That worry has spurred efforts to develop vaccines for the virus as well as to test migrating wildfowl in an effort to detect movement of the disease.
    
    In September, the Agriculture Ministry accused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a delay in its attempt to share bird flu virus samples, saying that the agency had not yet completed import procedures.
    
    Hall questioned the assertion then, saying that China's Health Ministry has so far shared six samples with the CDC lab designated by the WHO using the same import procedures without any problems.
    
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    31 October 2006
    
    Vaccine death: maker quizzed
    
    The Procurator Fiscal’s office in Dundee, investigating the death of a woman following her devastating reaction to a flu jab, is seeking answers from the German pharmaceuticals company that made the vaccine (writes Bruce Robbins). Depute fiscal Kirsty McGowan said the firm has been asked if it is aware of any other adverse reactions to the vaccine.
    Dundee woman Sylvia Thomson suffered a fatal reaction to the injection in November last year and died a few weeks later, on December 2,.
    The former PE teacher, who’d been bothered by an intermittent chest infection, asked her GP for the jab as a precaution. A week later, she was taken into hospital suffering from encephalitis — swelling in her brain.
    Hospital officials have since admitted that other people may be predisposed to a similar reaction.
    Mrs Thomson’s husband, Robert, has been pushing for a fatal inquiry into his 56-year-old wife’s death and is critical of the progress the fiscal’s department has made into the investigation.
    However, Ms McGowan told the Evening Telegraph she would be taking the matter further if she didn’t hear back from the company in two to three weeks.
    She added, “We have received a fax from one of the vaccine companies saying they have referred our inquiry back to the parent company in Germany. Solvay Pharm-aceuticals is German-owned and has a base in Holland. They have to provide us with a full answer and that couldn’t be done by the distributors in Britain.
    “We’ve identified the batch numbers of the vaccine concerned and are waiting for a report from the company. We are looking for other adverse reactions to the vaccine and the company will have all those details.”
    Ms McGowan rejected Mr Thomson’s claims the matter hadn’t been given a high enough priority and said she had updated him at the beginning of October.”
    Mr Thomson said he believed the fiscal’s department had spent a lot of time speaking to Mrs Thomson’s GP and a doctor at Ninewells Hospital when they should have been on to the drugs company straight away.
    “There must be a Government body that approved the vaccine for use in the UK and the fiscal could have contacted them straight away to find out what tests had been carried out on it before it was made available.
    “There was a report out recently saying that it couldn’t be proved that ‘flu vaccines do any good. Here we are heading into the vaccination season and we still don’t know if this particular vaccine is going to stop people getting the ‘flu or end up killing others.”
    31 October 2006
    
    www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/200...
    
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