MEPs attack ‘disproportionate' swine flu response
EU\'s response to epidemic was wasteful, says public health committee
The EU’s response to the swine flu epidemic has been attacked in the European Parliament as wasteful and disproportionate’.
A meeting of the Parliament’s public health committee has called for an EU-wide study on spending to fight the H1N1virus, in a motion noting ‘a striking contrast between the number of deaths associated with H1N1 influenza and the number of deaths associated with seasonal influenza..’. It noted ‘the very sizeable costs incurred in the member states and at EU level’ – for instance €1.3bn in the UK and €990m million in France – ‘as against €87m in the case of seasonal influenza’.
The motion called for EU and national flu pandemic prevention plans ‘to be revised…to gain in effectiveness and coherence and to make them sufficiently autonomous and flexible’ so that they can be adapted ‘as swiftly as possible…to the actual risk, based on up-to date relevant information.’
Meanwhile, the swine flu vaccine used in Europe has received praise from EU agency the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). A study concluded that ‘a single dose of vaccine against A(H1N1) pandemic influenza provided a good level of protection against the disease…particularly effective in those aged under 65 and in people without chronic conditions.’