Thursday, December 17, 2009

Millions Of H1N1 Vaccines Lay Unused Worldwide

What do you do when, in a panicky state of mind, a warlike situation arises against a pandemic like H1N1? You might go overboard.

Huge amounts of money have been invested in creating a large dump of H1N1 vaccines without going into any depth about exactly how much was needed. Now that utilization has decreased, some countries such as Canada are deciding how to handle the huge stockpiles of H1N1 vaccines.

Maybe they should have assessed just how much should have been generated and stored for fighting against the disease. Countries like the United States have yet to take stock of the situation. Until last week there was some panic about a possible shortage, while later it was disclosed that due to loss of public interest and over-distribution, there's a surplus. Last month Canada sent some surplus to other countries simply because they couldn't store it themselves.

The good news is that planning is now required by all countries to manage this surplus quantity scattered around the globe rather than having it go to waste. 50 million doses were donated last month by the drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to the World Health Organization, who in turn will distribute it to various H1N1-affected countries that need it the most.

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