UPDATE: 1 Dose Of Pandemic H1N1 Vaccine Suitable -WHO Official
30 Octubre 2009 - 9:13AM
Noticias Dow Jones
Just one dose of vaccine is enough to immunize against the
A/H1N1 swine flu virus, according to an advisory body to the World
Health Organization, Marie-Paule Kieny, the WHO's Director of
Initiative for Vaccine Research, said Friday.
European health regulator EMEA earlier this month recommended
two shots of vaccine be given.
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, or SAGE, also concluded
it is safe for pregnant women to receive licensed vaccines, Kieny
said, including both adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted vaccines.
"There's no reason to distinguish between the adjuvanted and the
non-adjuvanted vaccines, they have the same safety profile,
according to SAGE," Kieny said.
Adjuvanted vaccines contain a booster ingredient that makes one
shot more effective, but may also be the cause for rare, but
severe, side effects.
It is possible to co-administer a seasonal and pandemic vaccine
without safety concerns, according to SAGE. The only exception is
if both vaccines are nasal sprays, Kieny said.
So far, EMEA has approved three pandemic vaccines - Novartis
AG's (NVS) Focetria and GlaxoSmithKline PLC's (GSK) Pandemrix,
which are both adjuvanted, and Baxter International Inc.'s (BAX)
non-adjuvanted Celvapan.
The U.S., which so far used only non-adjuvanted vaccines, has
ordered from Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY), CSL Ltd. (CSL.AU),
GlaxoSmithKline PLC and MedImmune, a unit of AstraZeneca PLC
(AZN).
WHO Web site: http://www.who.int
-By Julia Mengewein, Dow Jones Newswires, +41 43 443 80 45,
julia.mengewein@dowjones.com