Canadian scientists expect to develop seed stock for a swine flu vaccine "in just a few weeks," the scientific director-general of the National Microbiology Laboratory said yesterday.
But with the number of H1N1 influenza cases in Canada rising to 214, Dr. Frank Plummer warned the actual development of a vaccine is still several months away.
"It's a long process but it's done pretty much every year because of changes in the seasonal flu," he said. "It's important we have a vaccine available for the fall."
Plummer rejected accusations by some experts that public health organizations have overreacted to the H1N1 virus, which has shown up in mostly in a mild form in Canadians.
Ontario's former chief medical officer, Dr. Richard Schabas, said this week the World Health Organization should not have raised the pandemic alert level and Canada should not have advised people against travel to Mexico without a much better understanding of this strain of influenza.
PROPER REACTION
"I think in terms of the reaction at the global level and reaction in Canada, I think it's been very appropriate," Plummer said.
"It's been measured, quick. In the beginning of these kinds of things, it's better to overreact than to underreact."
But another expert yesterday was critical of the WHO's handling of the outbreak, for its mixed advice to the public about eating meat from infected pigs.
Dr. Cate Dewey, chairwoman of population medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, said public health agencies should be much clearer in emphasizing that people can't be infected by eating meat from a dead pig -- even if it has suffered H1N1.
Influenza in pigs attaches to cells in the lungs and respiratory tract only, she said. "It can't get into the blood or muscle cells."
Canada screens hogs closely to ensure sick animals aren't slaughtered for consumption, but even if one slipped through, eating pork cuts would be virtually risk-free because the virus can't circulate beyond the pig's lungs.
Dewey said the WHO might not be taking time to understand how H1N1 works in pigs.
"The question is: Can we trust all the information coming out of the WHO? And that's got to be no," Dewey said.
"People are afraid of something they shouldn't be afraid of. They're afraid of pork and they shouldn't be afraid of pork."
CHRISTINA.SPENCER@SUNMEDIA.CA
