Strasbourg, 04/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of the European Parliament's plenary session on Monday 4 May in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner for health again looked at the scale of the new human A/H1N1 flu and the conclusions adopted last Friday by the Health Council. Androulla Vassiliou pointed out that the services of her DG SANCO were on a permanent state of alert. “We decided to expand seasonal flu monitoring”, she explained, pointing out that she had also met European vaccine manufacturers to launch production as soon as possible. She referred to the Council conclusions and again underlined the importance of a coordinated response. She welcomed the fact that ministers had recognised the fact that a travel ban was not an effective measure but did say that travellers had to be able to make informed decisions. The Commissioner affirmed that they needed to, “restrict measures that are dictated by the facts” and welcomed the preparation made by the European Commission a few years ago, “we are better prepared for this crisis than ever”, the Commissioner repeated.
The Greek Christian Democrat, Antonius Trakatellis applauded the measures taken, “We already have the plans but are member states ready to implement them”. Orientations are needed for an advised use of anti-virals and all pressure necessary should be exerted for the vaccine to be developed in four months time. Dutch Liberal, Jules Maaten stressed that the EU had had been lucky with this crisis but asked how they could act in a coherent way. According to Maaten, they needed to take into account the situation in the airports. Bart Staes (Greens/EFA, Belgium) said he was afraid of delays in implementing coordination measures, supplying anti-virals and information about the very nature of the virus. Urszula Krupa (IND/DEM, Poland) regretted the panic provoked by the those who wanted to sell their antivirals whilst forgetting about the economic crisis. Irena Belhorska (non-attached, Slovakia) underlined the importance of international cooperation and good public information. Françoise Grosstête (UMP, France) said that she was concerned about what would happen next October with temperatures that favoured propagation of the virus, with a virus that could become more dangerous after a further mutation. She said that they should not let their guard down and called on the Commission to provide information for citizens.
In her response, Commissioner Vassiliou said that she hoped that on 11 May they would have, “the raw material to develop a vaccine…we think this will take between six and eight weeks…I hope that with the new vaccine we will be able to response to the needs of our fellow-citizens”. She concluded that, “we have to remain calm, panic is never useful”.
According to information provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), on Monday 4 May, 78 cases had been confirmed in eight European Union countries: Austria 1, Denmark 1, France 2, Germany 8, Ireland 1, Italy 2, Netherlands 1, Spain 44 and the United Kingdom 18. Out of this total, it was estimated on Monday that the number of inter-human transmission had occurred in three EU countries: 2 in Germany, 3 in Spain and 3 in the United Kingdom.
The most recent figures on the pandemic for the American continent confirm 590 cases in Mexico, 226 in the US, 101 in Canada, 1 in Costa Rica and 1 in Colombia. In the rest of the world: 1 case confirmed in Switzerland, 3 in Israel, 1 in South Korea, 1 in Hong Kong and 5 in New Zealand. (O.J./trans/rh)