A(H1N1) vaccine to be made available to Filipinos in October

The vaccine against the A(H1N1) virus will finally be made available to Filipinos in October, the local distributor has said. An information officer of distributor Vaxcen told GMANews.TV on Monday that they have yet to receive a go ahead from their head office to release the name of the pharmaceutical company that would produce the vaccine. What is sure is that the vaccine will be made available through the company’s vaccine centers starting October, said the Vaxcen officer who refused to be named, citing company policy. “We assure you it’s from a reputable company," said the officer. National Epidemiology Center head Dr. Eric Tayag said in a separate interview that they have already received reports regarding such announcements from Vaxcen. “We’re looking into it, we still have to check and verify these orders. The problem is that we still have no guidelines or policies regarding the distribution of the vaccines," said Tayag. A previous announcement made by the Department of Health said that health care workers would be the first recipients of some 100,000 A(H1N1) vaccines ordered by the Philippine government from the World Health Organization (WHO). [See: DOH: Health workers to get first batch of A(H1N1) vaccines] Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also said that the WHO will “draw up" a formula of how to allocate the vaccines to each country. But Vaxcen said that it is now accepting reservations for the vaccine for P750. The worth of the vaccine is P1,500. It added that interested buyers may call their centers in Quezon City at 421-2493 or in Pasay City at 556-0414. Tayag said it is possible that the vaccine manufacturers are taking orders through Vaxcen. “Kung matutuloy yan, chances are hiwalay sila sa guidelines (If their vaccine distribution goes through, then they must be exempted from the guidelines," he said. As of early July, more than 2,688 cases of A(H1N1) had been recorded in the country with a 95 percent rate of recovery. Since July 9, the DOH has stopped daily updates on the cases of A(H1N1) in the country and instead focused its resources on mitigating the spread of the disease. In its July 27 update, WHO recorded 134,503 confirmed cases worldwide with 816 deaths. Of these figures, 87,965 or 65 percent of the infections and 707 deaths (86 percent) were recorded in the Americas. The scare over A(H1N1) had prompted some traders to cash in by selling vaccines that they claim to cure the disease. In mid-July, the National Bureau of Investigation arrested a businesswoman in Laguna province for selling what she claimed to be A(H1N1) vaccines. [See: NBI seizes P4M worth of fake flu vaccines] - GMANews.TV