Swine flu: first human vaccine trials

The first human trials anywhere in the world of the vaccine developed to combat swine flu have begun in Australia. Two biotechnology companies - Vaxine and CSL - are conducting the tests in Adelaide. Three hundred volunteers began trials on Monday with Vaxine, and 240 people are trialing for CSL as of today.

If the vaccine can be confirmed as safe and effective, the Australian government will launch a mass immunisation programme. But the tests will take up to two months. The crucial question the trials will answer is how much of the antigen is needed to destroy the virus - and therefore how many doses of vaccine can be produced.

Australia is the first country in line for the vaccine because it is in the southern hemisphere and already well into the winter flu season. At least 41 Australians have already died in swine-flu related cases.

Vaxine research director Nikolai Petrovsky said today: "We're in the southern hemisphere, and that is where the problem is right now. The demand was here yesterday. We're right in the middle of a surge of swine flu cases where perhaps the United States won't have to worry about it as much until their flu season hits in six months."

The long-awaited vaccine trials come as the World Health Organisation announces a leap in deaths worldwide. On June 22, the WHO put the global death toll at 231. Yesterday it had risen to more than 700. However, the agency says it will no longer tally laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu as they are increasing at too great a rate and it is a waste of resources.

Meanwhile the death toll in Britain from swine flu hit 30 yesterday with confirmation from Glasgow that a 15-year-old girl, who at her parent's request has not been named, was a victim of the pandemic. She is the fourth person to die in Glasgow which, like London and the West Midlands, has emerged as a swine flu 'hotspot'.

But health authorities were quick to explain that, once gain, the victim had other underlying medical conditions and that there was no need for panic.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish health secretary, said: "The tragic death of this young girl is devastating for her family and friends, and I'd like to express my sincere condolences. As we have seen in previous cases, this patient was suffering from underlying health conditions and her death should not cause alarm among the general population."

Other developments:

♦ Chloe Buckley: The six-year-old London schoolgirl thought to have died as a direct result of swine flu, was actually the victim of a septic shock linked to tonsilitis, it emerged yesterday. Dr Simon Tanner, regional director of public health for London, said: "A postmortem has concluded that six-year-old Chloe Buckley died of septic shock on 9 July as a result of a tonsilitis infection caused by the streptococcus A bacterium." Pathologists did not rule out swine flu as a contributory factor in her death.

♦ Travel insurance: The government's new online National Pandemic Flu Service, to be launched this week, will enable people to self-diagnose and request Tamiflu. But the Association of British Insurers (ABI) says a prescription obtained this way will not be enough to claim insurance on a cancelled holiday and that a GP's certificate of proof of illness will still be necessary.

♦ Meningitis fear: The Independent reports that some doctors fear the self-diagnosing offered by the National Pandemic Flu Service could mean patients with more severe illnesses slipping through the net. A teenage Derbyshire girl was admitted to the Dependency Unit of Rotherham General Hospital last week with meningitis, after being first diagnosed over the phone with swine flu. The Meningitis Research Foundation said the pandemic could lead to a rise in meningitis cases, because flu lowers immunity, making sufferers more susceptible to other infections.

♦ By-election hit: Chris Ostrowski, the Labour party's candidate in tomorrow's Norwich North by-election, was being treated for suspected swine flu in Norfolk and Norwich hospital yesterday. There were fears that Chancellor Alistair Darling, who joined Ostrowski on the stump on Monday, might contract the virus. ·