Swine flu set to dominate WHO conference

HEALTH experts are looking very closely at the spread of swine flu among people in Spain, Britain and Japan, a World Health Organisation official said yesterday, as Japan confirmed dozens of new cases among teenagers and shut down affected schools.

The swine flu epidemic is expected to dominate the WHO’s annual meeting, a five-day event that begins in Geneva today and involves health officials from the agency’s 193 member states.

WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan is expected to reveal experts’ recommendations on the production of a swine flu vaccine sometime at the meeting. Pharmaceutical companies are ready to begin making such a vaccine, but many decisions have to be made first – such as how much vaccine should be produced, how it will be distributed and who should get it.