By Katie Reid and Laura MacInnis
GENEVA (Reuters) - Health officials sought on Tuesday to find ways to increase the global supply of vaccines that could be used to protect the world's most vulnerable people against H1N1 flu.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conferred in Geneva with the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and executives from 30 pharmaceutical companies about how to bolster production of both seasonal and pandemic flu injections.
The vaccine industry is looking for guidance from the WHO about whether it should start mass-producing jabs to fight the newly-discovered virus strain that has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed 79.
"If we come to the joint decision that we have to shift to the production of H1N1 we do have the capacity to do so," Sjirk Kok, vice-president of Solvay Biologicals, said before the meeting at the WHO's headquarters.
Vaccine access concerns dominated the second day of the United Nations agency's annual congress, where delegates from 193 countries are trying to figure out how to avoid the worst effects of the newly-discovered flu.
Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health and human services secretary, said aggressive steps were being taken to boost production of seasonal flu vaccines, which could later be shifted into pandemic injections "if that is necessary."
But she told a news briefing the United States has not placed advance orders for H1N1 flu vaccines, as have France, Britain, Belgium, Finland and others.
"There is still so much uncertainty about this virus that it is really premature for us to even make a determination about how many people would appropriately be vaccinated, in what order, how many doses will be required, at what point. All those discussions are still very much underway," Sebelius said.
FINITE SUPPLIES
Most people infected to date have experienced mild symptoms, but pregnant women and patients with other health problems such as diabetes and asthma are thought to be at high risk from the strain that is a genetic mix of swine, bird and human viruses.
Rich and poor countries are seeking at the week-long World Health Assembly to settle their differences about how samples of viruses should be shared with pharmaceutical makers, who will use them to develop and sell vaccines to fight the H1N1 flu.
Developing nations including Indonesia have previously called for restrictions on the powers of drugmakers to patent virus samples and then offer vaccines at an unaffordable price.
One international official said there would be battles ahead as governments try to secure finite supplies of antiviral drugs and vaccines to protect their populations.
"Enabling poor countries to be able to access the various medical supplies they need is going to be a critical political and technical issue," he said. "This issue will require political attention."
According to the latest WHO tally, 40 countries have had confirmed H1N1 infections, with the largest concentrations in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Big clusters of infection have also been reported in Japan, Britain and Spain.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has said the H1N1 virus has put the world on the brink of pandemic, at Phase 5 of the agency's 6-point scale, but has not yet formally declared that a pandemic is underway.
Sebelius said there had been "much discussion in the last 24 hours about when and if to go to Level 6" and stressed that very little would change if the WHO issues the top alert, given that global preparations for pandemic are in full swing.
"The term pandemic is more about geography than severity," she said. "It is not an indication necessarily of the lethality of the disease, it's about how many regions of the world in which the disease is confirmed."
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
(For a map of the world locating latest reported cases of Influenza A (H1N1), go to: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/MAY/FLU.jpg )
(For WHO information on swine flu, go to: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html )