The European Commission has joint purchased 665,000 pre-pandemic vaccine doses targeting avian influenza and taken an option for 40 million doses over the next four years, the executive announced today (11 June).
The contract was signed by the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) on behalf of fifteen member states.
“HERA is showing again the European Health Union in action by making sure that we are prepared,” a Commission spokesperson told a press conference in Brussels.
While several outbreaks of avian influenza have been detected in farms across the globe, transmission to humans is still rare and limited to those in close contact with infected animals and contaminated spaces.
One of the latest reports comes from Mexico, where a 59-year-old man died on 24 April after being infected with avian influenza H5N2, confirming the first human infection with this strain of the virus.
Four other cases of human infections have been reported in the United States since 2022, three of them since the beginning of this year, all among dairy farm workers.
The US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control assesses the current public health risk as low and is currently monitoring outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows.