|
India has asked the World Health Organisation to explain media reports that swine flu was a “false pandemic”. Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao pointed out in Geneva that such news reports were adversely impacting the public health measures being undertaken by various countries
Pointing out that media reports calling swine flu a “false pandemic” were adversely affecting the public healthcare measures of many countries, Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao raised the issue at the executive board meeting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, on January 20, calling for transparency in the terms and conditions on which international vaccine manufacturers were supplying vaccines to countries. India has sought a clarification on media reports questioning the authenticity of the WHO’s declaration of H1N1 as a pandemic and alleging that the organisation raised the alarm to help pharmaceutical companies. “In response to this intervention by India, it was agreed that that WHO would formally write to national focal points in all countries clarifying the factual position about the H1N1 pandemic to quell all doubts that have been created,” Rao said in an official statement to the Press Information Bureau. WHO Director General Margaret Chan said at a meeting in January: “For me, the best health news of the previous decade is the fact that the long overdue influenza pandemic has been so moderate in its impact… I believe we would all rather see a moderate pandemic with ample supplies of vaccine than a severe pandemic with inadequate supplies of vaccine.” Governments from the US to Germany are curbing purchases of the vaccine to fight the new H1N1 virus after the number of cases declined and the first flu pandemic in 41 years appeared milder than was initially feared. The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe plans to debate the theme ‘Faked pandemics: a threat to health’ at a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, next week. Source: The Indian Express, January 22, 2010
http://news.oneindia.in, January 21, 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com, January 21, 2010
|
