Hong Kong experts say America should put resources in Asia to produce shots
The US will be hard-pressed meeting its own needs for a flu vaccine in a bird flu outbreak, without transferring the vaccine technology to Asia, top US health officials said yesterday.
The officials were responding to questions by a panel of Hong Kong experts at a US consulate video-conference with Washington and Taiwan.
Chinese University respiratory medicine division head David Hui Shu-cheong said: 'In the event of a pandemic, it is far more likely for the US or Europe to have the capacity to develop a vaccine. So I think it is important for the US to put enough resources in this locality to develop vaccines.'
The university's professor of microbiology, Paul Chan Kay-sheung, said: 'I want to see more real action to increase the capacity of vaccine development and production, in particular for Asian countries.'
But John Agwunobi, the newly appointed US assistant secretary for health who is the primary adviser on public health, said there was now a 'global spread of avian influenza. It would be foolhardy for us all to focus on one area at the expense of the others.'
He added: 'All pandemics are global and the response is global.'
