# 1910
A long, but interesting article appeared today in Japan's Daily Yomiuri Online that considers that nation's options in dealing with a pandemic.
Japan has 20 million doses of pre-pandemic vaccine that is set to expire next year. They either need to use it in the next year or so, or lose it.
Therefore Japan will began a test inoculation of about 6000 medical workers with this vaccine, hoping to prove that it is both safe and effective.
This will be the first large scale administration of a pre-pandemic vaccine by any nation.
Other countries, including the United States, will be watching this trial closely, as they also have prepandemic vaccines in storage that will expire over the next year or two.
Measures against flu needed / Govt urged to set up framework to fight new influenza outbreak
Masae Honma / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
The government has finally started drawing up measures to prepare for a possible outbreak of a new strain of pandemic influenza, including the inoculation of 6,000 medical practitioners and quarantine officers with pre-pandemic influenza vaccine by the end of this fiscal year.
However, concrete plans to deal with such an outbreak are underdeveloped. The government needs to establish a framework for containing a possible pandemic as a matter of urgency.
At a meeting of Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry experts held April 16 to discuss measures for tackling an outbreak, Nobuhiko Okabe, chair of the meeting and director of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center--an arm of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases--stressed the importance of inoculation.
"A new influenza virus is waiting to emerge. We need to do everything we can before the outbreak," Okabe said.
The pre-pandemic influenza vaccine contain antigens that correspond to the H5N1 influenza virus, a type of avian flu that has spread from birds to humans in countries including China and Indonesia. According to the World Health Organization, avian flu had killed 240 people worldwide as of last Thursday.
The vaccine would not offer full protection against the new envisioned influenza virus because the new strain likely would develop via the mutation of the avian flu virus. However, it is expected the vaccine will at least partially block infection and stop serious symptoms from developing while vaccines that contain antigens corresponding to the new virus are being created following a possible outbreak.
The United States and advanced countries in Europe are currently storing pre-pandemic vaccines. Switzerland already has prepared enough vaccine to inoculate all its citizens.
If the government goes ahead with its plans, Japan would be the first country to administer the vaccine to a large number of people. The government is worried about the possibility of another avian flu outbreak centering on Asia. According to the government's estimate, a new influenza strain could enter Japan within two weeks after the virus is confirmed in Asia. However, experts say it could arrive much earlier. The government believes it would be too late to carry out a vaccination program after a new virus has been confirmed.
However, as some of the 20 million doses of vaccine currently in stock are due to expire next year, the government has decided to initially inoculate about 6,000 people who have the highest chance of coming into contact with carriers of a new influenza strain. Quarantine officers and doctors and nurses working at designated hospitals for infectious diseases would be among the first wave of inoculees.
