Health care workers should be the top priority to receive immunization with the pandemic influenza vaccine, and individual countries should take their nations' domestic needs into account when determining how to prioritize inoculating subgroups vulnerable to the virus, a top international health panel has decided.
The World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has said that vaccinating health care workers is necessary to maintain a functioning health care system and prevent infection with the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus in people who have pre-existing illnesses, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of WHO's initiative for vaccine research, said in a press teleconference.
Countries are advised to prioritize the vaccination of such vulnerable groups as the chronically ill and children depending on each country's domestic needs, Dr. Kieny said. For example, countries whose first priority is reducing sickness and death may choose to focus on inoculating the elderly and chronically ill first, while those countries whose priority is reducing the spread of infection may decide to inoculate schoolchildren first, she said.
The expert panel made its recommendations after a meeting in July, and WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, endorsed the recommendations.
The panel also concluded that at this time there is no concern regarding the safety of the tested pandemic influenza vaccine, but there is still an “urgent need” to collect more safety data on subgroups, Dr. Kieny said.
New adjuvants are being used in some of the pandemic vaccines that have not been fully tested, so postmarketing surveillance must also be effective, according to the panel.
In addition, the panel said that data on immunogenicity and postmarketing safety and surveillance studies need to be shared among the countries to allow for adjustments in immunization policy, she said.
The panel added that countries in the Northern Hemisphere should proceed with their plans for seasonal influenza vaccination as if there were no pandemic because production of the seasonal vaccine is almost complete, Dr. Kieny added.