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These folks have a lot to learn about the vital contributions of older people.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....&in_page_id=34
Monday, November 6, 2006
The young and the very old could be denied vaccines during a bird flu pandemic, a scientist warns today.
Problems with production means only a small percentage of the world's population will get access to medication, says Prof Peter Dunhill.
'We can vaccinate only about 600million people from every six months of global production,' he tells a BBC documentary to be shown tonight.
'To put that in perspective, that's about nine per cent of the global population.
'It has been suggested the elderly and very young should be denied vaccine until after other groups have been vaccinated because they have either had a full life, or have not been invested in.'
Prof Dunhill, a bio-chemical expert from the University of Central London, added: 'Those are brutal decisions but people are having to think in those sorts of terms.' Flu pandemics usually occur around three times each century.
Last century, there were outbreaks in 1918, 1957 and 1968, when millions died.
Experts say this means another is likely.
Similarities between the H5N1 bird virus and the 1918 Spanish flu means any outbreak will probably hit healthy people between the ages of 20 and 40, the film goes on to claim.
The 1918 bug hit people in their prime because healthy bodies produce a chemical which tries to kill the virus but ends up destroying the body's own cells.
Prof John Oxford, of St Bart's Hospital, said: 'There you had a virus that did not seem to spread at all ? but within a year it exploded. We cannot ignore a virus that has done that in the past.'
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http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article....&in_page_id=34
Monday, November 6, 2006
The young and the very old could be denied vaccines during a bird flu pandemic, a scientist warns today.
Problems with production means only a small percentage of the world's population will get access to medication, says Prof Peter Dunhill.
'We can vaccinate only about 600million people from every six months of global production,' he tells a BBC documentary to be shown tonight.
'To put that in perspective, that's about nine per cent of the global population.
'It has been suggested the elderly and very young should be denied vaccine until after other groups have been vaccinated because they have either had a full life, or have not been invested in.'
Prof Dunhill, a bio-chemical expert from the University of Central London, added: 'Those are brutal decisions but people are having to think in those sorts of terms.' Flu pandemics usually occur around three times each century.
Last century, there were outbreaks in 1918, 1957 and 1968, when millions died.
Experts say this means another is likely.
Similarities between the H5N1 bird virus and the 1918 Spanish flu means any outbreak will probably hit healthy people between the ages of 20 and 40, the film goes on to claim.
The 1918 bug hit people in their prime because healthy bodies produce a chemical which tries to kill the virus but ends up destroying the body's own cells.
Prof John Oxford, of St Bart's Hospital, said: 'There you had a virus that did not seem to spread at all ? but within a year it exploded. We cannot ignore a virus that has done that in the past.'
.
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