Germany may donate 2.2 million swine-flu shots to world's poor

Dec 7, 2009, 15:24 GMT

Berlin - Germany is mulling a donation of 2.2 million shots of swine-flu vaccine to impoverished nations after fewer Germans than expected lined up for protection against A(H1N1) influenza, Berlin officials said Monday.

Germany, with 80 million people, ordered 50 million doses earlier this year when it was thought that patients would need two apiece. But then the World Health Organization (WHO) said one was enough.

With 5 million to 8 million Germans vaccinated so far, demand has tailed off just as shipments from world vaccine factories are in high gear. Health ministers of the 16 German states decided Germany will not need a delivery planned for the last week of December.

Officials said Germany may not be able to alter the contract, and may have to pay for the cancelled shipment regardless. Option number two is to sell the surplus vaccine to another country. If that does not work, Germany might have to give the vaccine away.

Hartmut Schubert, health minister of Thuringia state, told a newspaper, Westfalen Blatt, that the shots might be donated to Ukraine or Moldava or even Afghanistan. Ukraine has been hit hard by the virus.

Millions of worried Germans queued in the rain for free jabs when the vaccine first arrived in November, and doctors complained of overwork. But now doctors must persuade millions of more sceptical Germans to roll up their sleeves for a free shot.

Federal Health Minister Philipp Roesler, emerging from talks with national doctors' and health-insurers' groups, said, 'There is no reason to suppose this virus has got any less dangerous.'

Experts say that vaccinating 30 per cent of a population is enough to make the spread of A(H1N1) peter out.

So far, 86 people have died in Germany of swine flu and 190,000 have been confirmed infected, though doctors are no longer testing for the virus. The number of cases has tailed off, but doctors forecast a resurgence in the new year.