Low stocks of influenza vaccine: Health Ministry

Health Ministry says that the stocks of influenza vaccines, used for H1N1 virus, is extremely low.

Speaking at the press conference held Monday night, after a sharp uptake in positive cases of H1N1, ADK Doctor and Task Force Head Dr. Abdulah Niyaf said that the stocks of the vaccine were low and in limited numbers. He said discussions were underway to use the stocks for the high risk age groups.

“We do not have large stocks; we have limited stocks. The infected do not need to be vaccinated. They’re treated with a medication called Tamiflu. We’re already using Tamiflu. We discussed to use the limited stocks on the most critical age groups or categories. We’re carrying put those discussions,” Dr. Niyaf said.

He also said they had discussed on how to increase the stocks of vaccines. Dr. Niyaf said that they will seek out the assistance of other nations and organizations, adding the vaccines should be upto WHO standards. Therefore, he said there were strict guidelines on the criteria as well.

“We have to get WHO approved vaccines. We will be working with WHO, medical suppliers, nations to gain additional supplies. At this moment it is difficult to say when we can get additional stocks. Flu stocks are limited globally even,” Dr. Niyaf.

IGMH doctor Niyasha Ibrahim said that they receive influenza vaccines near the annual Hajj season, which has a shelf life of six months. Due to this, she said that there were some complications due to this.

Health Ministry task force forecasts that the number of H1N1 cases can rise exponentially in the coming days.