Epidemic may break out in CzechRep before vaccine arrives

The number of people with respiration diseases is steeply rising, but chief sanitary officer Michael Vit says an epidemic can be expected only in the second half of December.

Kubek voiced embarrassment at the fact that vaccination against swine flu has been underway in many European countries while the Czechs are still waiting for the vaccine.

He said he does not understand why the state hesitated so long to sign the contract with the supplier. It eventually signed the contract with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a company that refrained from accepting responsibility for the vaccination substance's possible undesirable effects, which, Kubek said, is very unusual.

CTK has found out, however, that all countries have signed similar contracts with their suppliers.

Some time ago Kubek declined the government's offer for doctors to be among the groups to be preferentially vaccinated against swine flu. He said doctors are no guinea pigs to test the vaccine on.

Today he told CTK that the main problem is no longer the quality of the vaccine but the fact that it will arrive too late.

"The most urgent threat is that the vaccine, which has been spoken about in this country for many weeks now, will arrive, but an epidemic may break out meanwhile and vaccination would be impossible. If the cases of flu are on the rise, one can no longer have himself vaccinated as he does not know whether he is going through the incubation period," Kubek said.

The Czech Republic signed the contract on the supply of a million doses of the vaccine with GSK in August after it failed to reach agreement with another producer, Baxter, on guarantees for the vaccine's quality.

GSK representative Eva Sebestova told CTK that the company has already produced one-tenth of the ordered vaccines. The first supply of 141,000 doses will arrive in the Czech Republic after November 23 and another 191,000 after December 28, she said.

Some experts say the Czech Republic should have preferred the vaccine from Baxter whose production is based on state-of-the-art technologies, which contains no additive substances and poses no risk of patient's allergic reaction.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz