Australian drug company to produce bird flu vaccine
Updated
Australian drug company, CSL, says it is now capable of providing a vaccine to all Australians in the event of a bird flu outbreak.
The vaccine has won approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration and will be produced if there is confirmation of human-to-human transmission of bird flu.
The vaccine will first be given to front-line health officials before becoming available to the rest of the country.
Australia's chief medical officer Dr John Horvath says the region is still at risk of experiencing a bird flu pandemic.
"At the moment there has been no human to human transmission," he said.
"The World Health Organisation and the United Nations flu group both are of the view that the threat remains unchanged and they have used the figure of 10 per cent risk per annum but over the last three years the threat really remains unabated."
The H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
