UK on a vaccine buying spree. Are we staring at another pandemic?

The UK government has purchased five million doses of a vaccine for H5 influenza, also known as bird flu, to prepare for a potential pandemic, according to a report of The Mirror.

The contract is with UK healthcare company CSL Seqirus UK Limited. The government is working to increase the UK’s supply of vaccines for various potential pandemic-causing diseases, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

The purchase will allow the UK to have vaccines readily available while a pandemic-specific vaccine is developed, should a pandemic arise. The government already has an agreement to purchase pandemic vaccines that would be tailored to a specific pandemic flu strain.



“Early access to vaccines saves lives. Adding H5 vaccines to the interventions already available to us will help us to be ready for a wider range of threats,” Dr. Meera Chand, emerging infection lead at the UKHSA, told the Mirror.

The vaccine is based on the current H5 avian influenza virus. While this virus is currently circulating in birds, the human H5 influenza vaccine would only be used if it begins spreading among people. The UKHSA stated there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

The recent emergence of a human case of H5N1 bird flu in some countries has sparked renewed concerns about the potential for a larger outbreak.


Bird flu, or avian influenza, refers to a disease caused by avian influenza Type A viruses. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these viruses naturally circulate among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry as well as other bird and animal species.

Although the virus has been circulating since 1997, it has not yet evolved to spread easily from person to person. The majority of human cases have been linked to direct contact with infected animals, particularly poultry or livestock.


Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, earlier said that while the current outbreak of H5N1 is a concern, the risk of it turning into a pandemic remains low. "You can’t say the risk is zero. But of the bird flu viruses, it’s lower risk," Adalja said.

Also, UK is not the only country in stockpiling the vaccine. The United States too has reportedly kept a stockpile of vaccines to fight a possile bird fly pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also developing vaccines for H5N1.