(h1N1): Swine flu vaccine may be delayed

via CAAI News Media

Monday, 15 February 2010 15:03 Khoun Leakhana

A(h1N1):

As many as 300,000 individual doses of swine flu vaccine sourced through the World Health Organisation (WHO), that had been expected to arrive in Cambodia by the end of 2009, may be delayed once again, WHO and government officials said on Sunday. “We were hoping it would be in the February-March window, but we don’t have an exact date,” said Dr Nima Asgari, a public health specialist at the WHO in Cambodia. WHO officials said in January that the vaccine would arrive by the end of February. Asgari said that the WHO wanted to vaccinate every Cambodian, but that the limited availability of the vaccine means health officials will need to prioritise particularly vulnerable groups, which in this case include healthcare workers, pregnant women and children. Meanwhile, the Communicable Diseases Control Department at the Ministry of Health reported on Sunday that the number of A(H1N1) cases in Cambodia reached 560 this week, an increase of three over last week’s figure. A total of six Cambodians have died from the A(H1N1) virus.