February 22, 2007

OIE sets up virtual vaccine bank for Africa

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has offered African countries some 18 million doses of vaccines in the past three months to help them fight the H5N1 avian influenza strain.

Egypt, the African country worst hit by the highly contagious bird flu virus, was the biggest recipient of the vaccines, receiving 14 million doses to protect its adult poultry, the OIE said in a statement.

Among other recipients were Mauritania, Mali and Senegal.

According to the OIE, the Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources of the African Union (AU-IBAR) set the criteria for countries eligible to receive the vaccines, which included their national vaccination programmes and the availability and efficiency of their cold chain.

The OIE has also established a virtual vaccine bank for African countries to assist bird flu-infected countries and those not yet infected by the virus.

The virtual bank is based not only on physical stocks of vaccines but also on commitments from the provider to deliver vaccines when needed, the organisation said.

The organisation intends to extend this bank to other regions as well.

The Canadian International Development Agency has already confirmed a financial participation to this global project for the 2007-09 period, according to the OIE.