# 2094
The take-away-message from the Kuala Lumpur Infectious Disease conference has obviously been that the world cannot let down its guard against a pandemic.
Dr. Julie Gerberding made that abundantly clear yesterday, and today we learn that the WHO will consider expanding the stockpile, and role, of pre-pandemic vaccines this fall.
This from Reuters.
Experts to mull if more flu pandemic drugs needed-WHO
Sun 22 Jun 2008, 10:30 GMT
By Tan Ee Lyn
KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Reuters) - Experts will discuss in November if the World Health Organisation needs to maintain a bigger arsenal of vaccines to help fight a flu pandemic, a top WHO official said on Sunday.
Scientists have warned for years about a flu pandemic that could be triggered by the H5N1 bird flu virus, which kills between 60 and 80 percent of the people it infects.
David Heymann, assistant director-general for communicable diseases at the WHO, said the current plan was for the WHO to maintain up to 100 million doses of what are known as "pre-pandemic' vaccines.
These would be used for essential populations in countries that need them, such as healthcare, police and security workers.
"They (a WHO-commissioned advisory committee of experts) will determine whether or not there should be a greater stockpile or even consider vaccinating populations against H5N1 as an insurance policy," Heymann told a news conference on the sidelines of an infectious disease conference in Kuala Lumpur.
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