Experts say Britain vulnerable to bird flu pandemic

Experts in Britain believe the government should have stockpiled more than one antiviral drug in order to tackle a bird flu pandemic and say Britain has been left vulnerable because the stockpile of anti virus drugs is deficient.

They also say an independent flu specialist needs to be elected to act as a special adviser to the government.

The Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, comprised of Britain's leading scientists, have produced a report which is the result of a working group convened to consider the threat of bird flu in the UK.

They are concerned the H5N1 avian virus, which could well develop into a pandemic should the strain mutate, might also develop a resistance to the drug Tamiflu which has been stockpiled by governments around the world as a first line of defence against bird flu.

The scientists recommend in the report that the government should also stockpile GlaxoSmithKline's antiviral drug Relenza an inhaled antiviral Relenza, alongside Tamiflu, which is taken in tablet form, to provide an important second line of defence in the event of a pandemic.

John Skehel, chairman of the working group, says that strains of the virus which are resistant to Tamiflu have already appeared when the drug has been used against seasonal influenza and in a small number of patients infected with H5N1, which is why the group is recommending a joint stockpile of the two drugs.

Britain has already stockpiled about 14.6 million treatment courses of Tamiflu at a cost of around 200 million pounds, enough to cover one quarter of the population.

Tamiflu is not expected to prevent a future pandemic, but scientists believe it could lessen its effects and possibly slow down the spread of a pandemic until a specific vaccine is developed.

The report points out that it would not be possible to manufacture enough influenza vaccines globally in a pandemic but limited supplies could be stretched if combined with compounds known as "adjuvants" which increase vaccine effectiveness.

The report also recommends that the Government should consider "population priming" where, even without an exact match in virus strain, it may be possible to provide broad immunity by vaccinating with a pre-pandemic influenza vaccine.

H5N1 remains predominately a disease of birds and to date almost all cases have been through direct contact with diseased birds.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), since 2003 there have been 258 cases in people and 153 deaths; but this year has seen 75 deaths from the H5N1 virus, compared with 42 last year.

The on-going worry is that the virus could mutate into a strain that could become highly infectious in humans and spark a pandemic capable of killing millions.

The Royal Society, while it has praise for Britain's contingency plans to tackle a possible flu pandemic, says the government does not use the advice of independent scientists in formulating its policies.

The Society believes an influenza specialist could contribute expertise in formulating policy and act as a model for how Britain responds to other future emergencies in order to insure that scientific knowledge is kept up to date.

The group say it had difficulty penetrating the barrier of confidentiality that surrounds the industry and its relationship with the Department of Health.

The report calls for academic researchers and leading pharmaceutical companies to work on improving vaccines which will be fundamental weapons in the battle against a pandemic.