Three U.S. firms to make swine flu vaccine

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WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Enough swine flu vaccine to immunize at least 20 million people in the United States should be ready by late summer, federal health officials said.

The vaccine would be earmarked for people in key positions in healthcare, national security and emergency services, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.

The government has asked Sanofi Pasteur, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline to make the vaccine and is negotiating with MedImmune and CSL, an Australian company, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The order is part of a $1 billion investment in production and testing of vaccine against the new strain of the H1N1 flu virus.

While questions remain about the effectiveness of a swine flu vaccine, Sebelius said the nation "can't wait" for the answers before putting manufacturing machinery in motion.

"This is really to reserve our place in line," Sebelius said of the vaccine order.

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People over 50's had antibodies against H1N1 virus

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Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

Federal Health Officials of New York says that people born before 1957 appear to have some immunity to H1N1 or the swine flu virus.

According to Dr. Daniel Jernigan, chief flu epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the blood serum tests that they took from people at least 52 years old show they had antibodies that attacked the H1N1 virus. Dr. Jernigan also says that of the 247 people hospitalized because of the swine flu only 13 percent are over 50 years old and many of those have other medical conditions.

Doctors from America and Mexico also noticed the trend but says that it doesn't mean everyone over 52 is immune.

The H1N1 virus continues to spread all over the world and the number of infected victim is rapidly increasing too.

On the last record of the World Health Organization there are already 41 countries that has a confirmed H1N1 virus cases, 10,243 confirmed cases all over the world and 85 cases of death because of H1N1 virus.


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