Examination of Witnesses (Questions 100-102)
PROFESSOR COLIN
BLAKEMORE, DR
ALAN HAY,
PROFESSOR ANDREW
MCMICHAEL
AND PROFESSOR
ANNE JOHNSON
30 NOVEMBER 2005
Q100 Mr Newmark: How are these readiness
protocols going to work in practice? In the event of an epidemic,
could the MRC end up overspending its budget?
Professor McMichael: I think we
could respond with the first year of that funding from existing
board budget, but we do refer back to council at regular intervals
three times a year, whereas if we were running into trouble then
we would go to council to look at the strategy budget and I think
we could respond within that at least for the first year.
Q101 Chairman: Professor Blakemore,
Alan Hay said earlier that other viruses might be showing characteristics
that make them more likely candidates for causing pandemics than
in fact the one that is being looked at at the moment. Do you
feel that the current predominance in terms of avian influenza
is diverting attention from those other possibilities? Which other
infections would in fact cause you the greatest concern that we
perhaps are not spending enough attention on?
Professor Blakemore: Certainly
Alan could comment on that and on the continuous programme of
work in NIMR and elsewhere around the world to monitor the appearance
of new strains and to advise WHO on which are thought to be the
most dangerous and concerning strains with the development of
seasonal flu vaccines in particular. As Alan said earlier, the
reason for special concern about H5 is the very high case fatality
rate associated with human infection at the moment and the similarity
of that virus to the 1918 virus which caused a very serious pandemic.
I think it is quite right to be concentrating considerable attention
on H5N1 but not diverting the regular surveillance that goes on
for all other viral strains.
Q102 Chairman: Do you agree with
that?
Dr Hay: Let me correct one thing.
All the different viruses we are looking at are avian viruses,
that is the source of these different subtypes of influenza A
which are the potential candidates for a pandemic. The only exception
to that would be the potential re-emergence of the human H2N2
virus which has not been circulating since 1968 in many of the
population and it is the younger section of the population who
are vulnerable to infection by that, so that is something which
people are keeping their eye on also.
Chairman: Thank you all very much indeed
for your attendance this morning.
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