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H1N1 Vaccines Fall Short Of Production Goal In US

Posted on: Thursday, 5 November 2009, 10:40 CST

Swine flu cases in the US will be on the decline when the H1N1 vaccine finally hits the market, a top health official announced on Wednesday.

"It is likely that the current wave of infection will peak, crest and begin to decline before there are ample supplies," Thomas Frieden, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated to lawmakers at a conference.

"Currently we are continuing to see virus activity and the number of people getting sick increase in many states, although it has already begun to decrease in other states, particularly in the southeast," Frieden said.

"Whether there will be another wave of H1N1 between now and May when the flu season ends or whether we'll get another strain of influenza, only time will tell," he added.

Nicole Kunka, representative from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, noted that the government was "miserably short" of its H1N1 vaccine manufacture objective.

"Initial government estimates were that 160 million doses would be available by October... on October 29, 24.8 million doses were available," she said.

Kunka referred to numbers gathered by the Department of Health and Human Services that "indicate that doses sufficient to cover all priority populations will likely not be available before January 2010."

The vaccine deficit has affected a lot of Americans, with even the people in the five priority groups being sent home without receiving the shot.

5,700 people have passed away around the world since the virus was first identified in April, with 4,175 of the deaths located in North and South America, said the World Health Organization.

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On the Net:

• CDC

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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