| | |  Health & Beauty | September 2009 
Mexico to Start Distributing Swine Flu Shots in October
 Carlos Manuel Rodriguez & Jose Enrique Arrioja - Bloomberg
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September 23, 2009
 |  | Mexico is ready to close schools or businesses if necessary. However, we won’t need to be so drastic, after learning this illness is benign and curable.
- Health Minister Jose Cordova |  | | |
Mexico will begin immunizing health workers and military staff against swine flu next month as it buys 30 million doses of vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Sanofi-Aventis SA.
Mexico is expecting “at least 2 million doses” for each of the next two months, the country’s Health Minister Jose Cordova said. For the month of December, the country may get up to 10 million shots, he said.
The H1N1 pandemic sweeping across the globe has accounted for 28,292 confirmed swine flu cases in Mexico, the third- highest worldwide, and 224 deaths, according to the health ministry. Health authorities hope the vaccine slows the spread of the disease, which Cordova said could infect as many as 5 million people during the coming winter flu season.
“Fortunately, we’ve been able to guarantee the required doses for the vulnerable population,” Cordova said. “Sixty or 80 percent of the available vaccines in the world are being purchased by the developed countries.”
The vaccines bought by the Mexican government would be offered to the most high-risk groups of people, such as pregnant women and children. Cordova said the shots would be distributed through the public health system. Clinical trials conducted by the U.S. government and drugmakers show the vaccine becomes effective in eight to 10 days in healthy adults.
School Closures
Mexico is ready to close schools or businesses if necessary, Cordova said yesterday in an interview in Mexico City. “However, we won’t need to be so drastic, after learning this illness is benign and curable,” he said.
Last spring, Mexico closed schools and offices and banned social and community events in an effort to contain the disease. Most patients suffer symptoms such as nausea, headache and fever though H1N1 has caused more cases of severe sickness in children than typically seen with a seasonal flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agreements to supply 30 million doses of vaccine, worth 150 million euros ($222 million), will probably be signed this week, Cordova said. Paris-based Sanofi will provide 20 million doses and London-based Glaxo will sell Mexico 10 million shots.
Paying for Vaccines
“We’re using the money from the nation’s catastrophic fund,” Cordova said. Mexico needs to create a 5 billion pesos ($374 million) sanitary emergencies fund for next year to avoid cutting other health programs, he said.
Mexico is reducing federal government spending by 50 billion pesos this year, including 4.9 billion pesos cut from the Health Ministry as the recession and falling oil output sap revenue.
Mexico has a stock of 2.5 million doses of antiviral drugs that help reduce the symptoms of infected flu patients. The ministry has agreements to acquire more antiviral doses if needed, Cordova said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Carlos M. Rodriguez in Mexico City at carlosmr(at)bloomberg.net; Jose Enrique Arrioja in Mexico City at jarrioja(at)bloomberg.net
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