Finland is set to become the first country in the EU to begin offering and administering vaccines for potential human cases of bird flu.
Next week, the EU health crisis authority will sign a contract with Seqirus to obtain 640,000 vaccine doses intended for humans to treat bird flu (H5N1), with the first portion going to Finland.
Speaking with Politico, a senior commission official said the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority will sign the joint procurement contract with the vaccine company on behalf of 15 member countries next Tuesday.
While the current contract is only for 640,000, this could be altered to allow the EU to purchase 40 million doses of bird flu vaccine over the next 4 years.
Of the 640,000 doses, Finnish health officials say the country will receive 20,000.
They further state the vaccines will first be sent to mink farm workers, who, they say, are at greater risk of contracting bird flu and that they plan to administer them “as soon as the vaccines are in the country.”
As of the end of May, there have been zero cases of bird flu in humans or cows in the EU.
First bird flu death deemed a ‘hoax’
The first supposed bird flu death, which was reported in Mexico, from a new strain experts are calling extra contagious has been deemed a hoax by Mexican health officials.
During a briefing, Mexican Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer denied the WHO’s claim that the 59-year-old chronically ill man with little contact with poultry died from a new highly transmissible strain of bird flu.
According to Alcocer, the Mexican man died from a combination of underlying conditions and severe illnesses culminating in “mainly kidney and respiratory failure”.
He further urged the Mexican population to remain calm, calling the WHO’s announcement “not accurate”.
“I can point out that the statement made by the World Health Organization is pretty bad since it speaks of a fatal case [of bird flu], which was not the case,” Health Secretary Alcocer said.
Nonetheless, mainstream media outlets and the WHO are now advocating for even more caution, fanning the flames of fear as more countries sign up to acquire bird flu vaccines.
