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Germany destroys flu vaccines worth 130 million euros
29.11.2011 / 14:00 h
Berlin, Nov 29 (EFE) .- Germany today began destroying a total of 16 million vaccines against the H1N1 flu GlaxoSmith Kline British pharmaceutical worth 130 million euros by the expiry of its expiration date.
According to German health authorities said, the fear of a pandemic in 2009, after the first deaths in Mexico for a swine flu outbreak in humans, led to the 16 federal states to purchase 34 million doses of vaccine worth 283 Pandemrix million euros.
According to the Robert Koch Institute of Virology, the vaccination rate was between 4% and 14% depending on the federal state, so the total number of vaccines purchased 28.7 million doses left over.
Until Wednesday afternoon, a total of 196 pallets with expired vaccinations will be removed at a cost of 14,000 euros to 1,000 degrees of temperature in the incinerator Rothensee in Magdeburg, in the east.
For the states was spent 239 million euros, as the public health insurance cost only took the doses used.
Also the states must now take the destruction of expired vaccines distributed to their respective health centers and physicians.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 18,400 people died from H1N1 flu, which spread to 214 countries and island territories-a figure well below the 250,000 to 500,000 deaths each year by the seasonal flu.
In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute reported between May 2009 and April 2010, a total of 226,000 cases of H1N1 flu contagion, of which 252 patients died.
75% of the fatalities were younger than 60 years, 29 of them children.
In August 2010, WHO announced the end of the outbreak, with 350 million people vaccinated worldwide fourteen months after declaring a state of high alert for swine flu
A scientific committee is then to evaluate the performance of WHO, after accusations that the organization had been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry in making decisions.
Finally, the committee determined that there were "direct or indirect evidence" of the influence of commercial interests. EFE