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Sep 25, 2009

GENEVA (Reuters) - Fresh donations of H1N1 vaccines are expected to swell a global stockpile created to ensure poorer nations have good supplies to contain the swine flu pandemic, a top United Nations health official said on Friday.

Dr. David Nabarro, the U.N. coordinator for fighting new emerging flu varieties, told reporters several richer states were likely to join nine which have agreed to share their own vaccines with developing countries.

"It is most likely that there will be other countries donating 10 percent of their H1N1 vaccine stocks," Nabarro said by telephone from New York during a break from meetings with already pledged and potential donors.

He declined to say who the new donors would be, indicating that announcements would be made by the countries themselves, probably after meetings he and other officials were holding with them on Friday and into the weekend.

Last week, vaccines were pledged to the U.N.-administered stockpile by Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

Drug makers can only produce enough H1N1 vaccine each year for half the planet, forcing each country to choose who will get the limited supplies, the WHO said on Thursday.

Mass vaccination programmes could start in Europe within weeks after European healthcare regulators recommended two swine flu vaccines for approval on Friday.

Poorer nations are especially vulnerable to the H1N1 virus because many are badly affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and have under-funded health services, U.N. and World Health Organisation (WHO) officials say.