NZ guaranteed bird flu vaccine

Bird flu is causing concerns worldwide. A vendor in Senegal, which has banned all poultry imports, shows off his chickens at a market in Dakar. Picture / Reuters

New Zealand will be guaranteed a vaccine against a pandemic of bird flu, should the current H5N1 virus that has killed thousands of birds and more than 60 people mutate, the Ministry of Health said today.

A formal agreement with an Australian manufacturer means New Zealand will be supplied with the pandemic vaccine once it is developed.

"We have a formal arrangement with Australia's CSL Ltd -- the only influenza vaccine manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere -- which gives us a guaranteed supply if we need a pandemic vaccine," director of public health Mark Jacobs said.

"Under the arrangement it is anticipated that we will get access to a pandemic vaccine within four to six months of the World Health Organisation declaring the existence of a pandemic."

The H5N1 avian flu sweeping flocks of poultry in Asia has infected 122 people and killed 62.

Experts say it could mutate in a way allowing easier human-to-human transmission and cause a deadly global pandemic.

The World Health Organisation has warned that no country is prepared to battle a pandemic.

Dr Jacobs said the request for proposals canvassed two different options: an H5N1 vaccine and a pandemic vaccine.

"We simply won't know until a pandemic emerges how closely the H5N1 vaccine matches the pandemic viruses and therefore how much protection it will offer.

"We have done our best to access vaccines so we can protect all New Zealanders," Dr Jacobs said.

"However, I must stress that no manufacturer will be able to produce a vaccine that will definitely give protection against pandemic influenza until a pandemic is declared by World Health Organisation -- it's catch 22.

"Until we know exactly what the virus causing widespread human disease is, we cannot come up with a vaccine against that virus."

Dr Jacobs said this meant people would not be able to be protected by immunisation during the early months of a future pandemic.

"This underlines the importance of efforts to keep a future pandemic of influenza out of New Zealand, or at least to delay its entry."

- NZPA, REUTERS