France ‘prepares’ as an urgent pandemic warning has been raised – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

French disease experts have issued an urgent pandemic warning and have ordered 650,000 vaccines from the European Union.

France has so far obtained 20,000 vaccines to prevent the transmission of avian influenza to their citizens.

Bruno Lina a virologist from the International Centre for Research in Infectiology (CIRI) in Lyon, has issued a warning that the threat of a pandemic is “real.”

The French Ministry of Health will set out their strategy in a few weeks’ time as cases of avian influenza in humans in the US, Australia and Mexico has been reported.

The French ministry has said that vaccinating just poultry is no longer enough and farmers and vets in high-risk areas of an outbreak will be used.

A British laboratory has signed a contract for 40 million further vaccinations and between October and December this year will be delivered.

Lina who is also a professor at Lyon university hospital said on Thursday, “The decision to take vaccines in stock in order to possibly respond to a situation that evolves is something that is part of the preparation.

“We face a risk, a pandemic risk: it is not major, but it is real. We see that we are in a risk situation which has evolved a little and in which we cannot simply remain as spectators.”

Lina said that “we need to prepare” as since as early as 1997 avian influenza has seen “almost 900 cases have been recorded and, in total, there have been around 480 deaths.”

Lina insisted they need “a response capacity to curb the risk,” should avian flu increase in humans.

The professor said, “Today, wild birds present in North America have this virus, which has not circulated in Europe.

“It is a particular lineage, an underline of another H5N1 virus which had already circulated in Europe.

“It is not quite the same virus, even if they look similar. Migratory birds will migrate to the Arctic: however, the migration corridors of birds to the Arctic apply to almost all birds in the world who migrate to the North.”

“That’s why we have to prepare a little more, just to have elements to respond,” Lina added.

Lina said so far in France there has been no known transmission between poultry and humans, but despite this “we need to prevent humans from being infected” to prevent “this virus from adapting to humans,” adding “It is really an avian virus: but when it infects humans, things often go very badly.”