Avian flu jab not expected until 2006

VACCINES to protect against the killer avian flu will not be available in Ireland until early 2006, a senior Department of Health (DoH) official confirmed yesterday.

“We hope to have them as soon as possible,” said DoH principal officer Brian Mullins. “At this stage we would hope to get them possibly early next year. That would be the earliest we would secure them.”

Health experts warn an epidemic of the viral disease - which has travelled from south-east Asia to Siberia - could kill more than 25,000 people in Ireland.

A suspected case of bird flu H5N1 - which is carried by migrating birds - is being investigated in Finland. Final tests will not be known for some weeks.

There is concern wild birds such as geese, ducks and swans that spend the winter in Ireland may bring the virus here within weeks - well ahead of any vaccine becoming available.

Since 2003, the flu has killed 63 people in south-east Asia. In recent weeks, the strain has been discovered in Kazakhstan, Siberia and European Russia.

Mr Mullins, a member of the Influenza Pandemic Expert Group (IPEG), admitted his group had not met for nearly two years due to an industrial dispute.

This dispute related to the long-running refusal of hospital consultants to take part in department committees.

“It (group) didn’t meet due to an industrial dispute, but it probably would not have been meeting anyway because it would have awaited publication of the WHO (World Health Organisation) revised plan which details what national governments should be doing in terms of alleviating the worst effects of the flu,” said Mr Mullins.

He said the Irish plan to combat a pandemic flu outbreak was being revised and “should be completed in a month or two”. “We also have a generic public health emergency plan which details what is required to be done,” Mr Mullins told RTÉ Radio 1. The as yet unlicensed vaccine is almost straight from the laboratory.