Swine flu vaccine access biased in "favor of affluence:" WHO Chief

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Poverty will stop

some countries gain access to swine flu vaccines, said the head of World Health

Organization.

WHO chief Margeret Chan said Tuesday: "manufacturing

capacity for influenza vaccines is finite and woefully inadequate for a world of

6.8 billion people, nearly all of whom are susceptible to infection by this

entirely new and highly contagious virus."

"The lion's share of these limited supplies will go

to wealthy countries. Again we see the advantage of affluence. Again we see

access denied by an inability to pay," she told delegates attending a World

Intellectual Property Organization conference.

Access to life-saving interventions such as antiviral

is "biased in favor of affluence." The discovery of H1N1 infections that resist

the antiviral Tamiflu and the global scramble for pandemic vaccine shows the

importance of innovation in keeping pace with the emergence of new diseases,

Chan said.

(Agencies)