State’s bird flu vaccine supply ‘may be useless’

SOME 200,000 bird flu vaccines being stored by the Department of Health could be useless by the time a human pandemic of the virus hits, according to a leading health expert.

A specialist with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Doctor Derval Igoe, said the virus was likely to mutate from the current H5N1 strain of the disease, which the Government stockpiles can protect against.

The Department of Health said they were exploring the possibility of advance purchase agreements, which means they would agree to buy whatever new vaccine is developed after the pandemic emerges.