The appearance of a first case of infection with the H5N1 virus contracted in Canada, confirmed in British Columbia, brings to the forefront the question of preparing for an epidemic. While the province’s chief medical officer of health, Bonnie Henry, explains that antivirals were offered to those around the infected teenager, Canada does not have a stock of avian flu vaccines for humans. .
People were offered prophylaxis with an antiviral drug called oseltamivir to prevent them from developing symptoms if infected
explain Bonnie Henry.
The Health Canada website specifies that the ideal time to start antiviral treatment is within 48 hours of the onset of illness
and that the federal National Emergency Strategic Stockpile (RNSU) contains enough antivirals to treat 2.5% of the population.
On Wednesday, Health Canada explained that it had authorized three vaccines that could be used in the event of a pandemic. The federal government has an agreement with manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline for domestic vaccine production that could be accelerated if necessary.
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Bonnie Henry says antiviral drugs were offered to those around the teenager suffering from bird flu. (Archive photo)
Photo : - / Ben Nelms
The company CSL Seqirus has concluded an agreement with the United States for approximately 4.8 million doses of a pre-pandemic vaccine. It also has an agreement to supply 665,000 doses to 15 countries in Europe, with an option for an additional 40 million vaccines.
Tiffany Codyof CSL Seqirusspecifies that the company received orders from 20 governments
and that in the event of a declared pandemic with abandonment of seasonal influenza, the company’s global capacity during the first 16 weeks of manufacturing would be approximately 500 million doses.
We met with the Public Health Agency of Canada on several occasions. They have publicly stated that they do not want to purchase a stock of bird flu vaccines.
No vaccine stock
Angela Rasmussen, virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization from the University of Saskatchewan, thinks Ottawa should build up a stockpile of vaccines, as the United States is doing, rather than relying on agreements with manufacturers to supply them on demand.
Brian Wardco-director of the Vaccine Study Center at the McGill University Health Center, disagrees.
Now is not the right time to create a big warehouse of hundreds of millions of doses because there is no reason to do that. [Au] Canada, we have a [seul] cas.
Brian Ward assures that vaccines could be made in a quite way [rapide]
. He advises developing a vaccine for workers in contact with cows, whose infection of herds he considers inevitable in Canada.
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The WHO says that globally, between January 1, 2003 and September 27, 2024, 464 of 904 cases of human infection with H5N1 were fatal.
Photo : CDC et NIAID/Flickr
For his part, Fahad Razak, specialist in internal medicine at the hospital St Michael’s of Toronto, estimates it would take three to six months to deploy a vaccine under existing contracts. The ramp-up period might just be too slow.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says it does not stockpile H5N1 vaccines because shelf life is only two years
. Bonnie Henry adds that we don’t know how long would the protection last
and that it is not an easy vaccine to make
.
She also recalls the importance of annual flu vaccination.
Fahad Razak argues that stockpiling enough vaccines to immunize high-risk people such as agricultural workers could be an intermediate approach
.
Finland vaccinates its population at risk
Finland was the first country in the world to offer preventive bird flu vaccination to certain workers exposed to animals, particularly on poultry and fur farms.
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Hanna Nohynek is chief physician of the Health Threat Prevention Unit at the Department of Public Health at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
Photo: Provided by Hanna Nohynek
Hanna Nohynek, chief physician of the Health Threat Prevention Unit at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, explains that in 2023, around 500,000 animals had to be euthanized on more than 70 fur farms .
Unfortunately, the approximately 20,000 doses of human vaccines purchased only arrived in July, while the last case of an infected bird was detected in January. To date, only 1,000 people have received at least one of the two prescribed doses, explains the doctor.
Finland, notes Hanna Nohynek, proposed the avian flu vaccine because “human beings were at risk of contracting serious disease” and viral recombination “could trigger a new pandemic”.
We have already spoken with Canadians and shared everything we have and, of course, your situation is very different from ours; but I think we all have the same concerns […] I don’t want to give advice [au Canada, mais] share our information. It is up to Canadians to decide which path to take.
Contacted, the association BC Poultrywhich represents poultry farmers, declined to respond to the possibility of offering vaccines to poultry farm workers. Bonnie Henry specifies that additional personal protective equipment exists for people working in infected poultry houses.
We offer oseltamivir prophylaxis if necessary, […] a fairly effective antiviral drug. At the moment, we do not see the need to offer vaccination, as the measures in place appear to be sufficient to protect people.
In its latest situation report on avian flu, the World Health Organization says that globally, between 1is January 2003 and September 27, 2024, 904 cases of human H5N1 infection were reported in 24 countries.
Among these 904 cases, 464 were fatal, representing a lethality of 51%.
With information from The Canadian Press, Reuters and the broadcast Panorama
