# 3473
Although the news a month ago (June 12th) was that Swiss Vaccine manufacturer Novartis had produced a swine flu vaccine ready for testing weeks ahead of schedule, it now appears that it will be `at least October’ before the first inoculations can begin.
As a vaccine manufacturing country, Switzerland is particularly well poised to provide a vaccine to its people at the earliest possible moment.
And with a population of fewer than 8 million people – all living in a relatively compact geographic region – the logistics of delivering the vaccine to the arms of their citizens should be considerably less than many other countries will face.
But even with these advantages the road to getting a vaccine manufactured, tested, and delivered to the arms of their population is a long one.
July 11, 2009 - 3:34 PM
Swine flu jab not ready before October
A vaccine against swine flu is not likely to be ready before the first wave of an expected pandemic hits, an expert has said.
Claire-Anne Siegrist, president of the Federal Vaccination Commission, told a Saturday newspaper that the anti- H1N1 infection jab would be available in October at the earliest.
"It is not too late, but it's after the first pandemic flu wave which could occur in September," the Geneva professor told the French-speaking Le Temps.
The Swiss government has struck a deal with two international pharmaceutical companies for 13 million doses of vaccine to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. It expects up to 1.5 million people - a quarter of the work force - to be infected in the projected autumn pandemic.
The vaccine is now being made. But it still needed to be tested and then submitted for approval by the authorities, Siegrist said. Afterwards, a person would need two injections in a three to four-week period to be protected from the virus.
Siegrist said she expected the flu wave to come in the colder months and that at its high point, there could be around 400,000 people to be ill with the virus the same time.
