BRITAIN is stockpiling more than five million bird flu vaccines amid fears the H5N1 virus could spark the next global pandemic.
The highly pathogenic bug, which has been prevalent in birds across the world over the last few years, is worrying experts.
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They fear the bug could mutate to spread among humans, which could trigger a pandemic.
In a bid to bolster the country’s defences, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has secured H5 jabs to be rolled out in the event of an outbreak in humans.
Dr Meera Chand, emerging infection lead at the agency, said: “Early access to vaccines saves lives”.
“It is important for us to be prepared against a range of different influenza viruses that may pose human health risks,” she added.
“Adding H5 vaccines to the interventions already available to us will help us to be ready for a wider range of threats.”
The vaccine will be manufactured in the UK, by healthcare company CSL Seqirus UK Limited.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, from Oxford University, added: “Emergence of a new strain of influenza remains at the top of the list of pandemic threats.
“So, providing resilience against potential risky flu types, like H5, is important for future pandemic and outbreak preparedness.
“H5 is only one of the multiple families of flu viruses that create such a risk, so we should not be complacent.
“But H5 is the one that we are most concerned about today as a result of the global spread of this virus amongst birds and various mammals, and worryingly across the US amongst cattle this year.
“H5 is out there and we need to do all we can to be prepared.”
There are different types of the virus, with H5 causing a “prolonged global outbreak” over the past few years primarily in birds, the UKHSA said.
H5N1 has infected 903 people and killed at least 465 since 2003.
The strain has also spread widely among US cattle this year, which has increasingly been spilling into humans.
There have so far been 61 human cases – mostly among dairy workers, who suffered from mild symptoms.
However, a teenager who recently contracted the infection in Canada from an unknown source has been in critical condition for over a month and remains in intensive care.
“This is what happens just before we have major pandemics,” Prof Christopher Dye, from Oxford University previously told The Sun.
“Sometimes it fizzles out, but sometimes it explodes because pathogens find unexpected ways to survive and spread,” the former director of strategy at the World Health Organisation (WHO) explained.
Spotted in the UK
Last month, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed cases of H5 bird flu at a poultry farm in Yorkshire, England.
The department said all poultry would be humanely killed and a protection zone set up to cover 3km around the site.
However, it has not yet been detected in humans in the UK.
The sheer scale of the current outbreak, which has seen the bug jump to several other mammals, including pigs, foxes and seals, has scientists worried.
The virus’s rapid spread could create more opportunities for it to mutate, increasing the risk of it jumping between humans.
Genetic analysis of the virus that infected the Canadian teenager revealed mutations that make it easier to infect humans.
Bird flu: Could it be the next human pandemic?
By Isabel Shaw, Health Reporter
BIRD flu is running rampant in wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows.
This increase in transmission has given the virus lots of opportunities to mutate – a process where a pathogen changes and can become more dangerous.
Scientists fear it’s only a matter of time before one of these mutations makes it better at spreading among mammals – and potentially humans.
Some experts believe the virus could already be spreading among some animal species.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans.
But in the hundreds of cases where humans have been infected through contact with animals over the past 20 years, the mortality rate is high.
From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by H5N1 have been reported worldwide from 23 countries, according to the World Health Organisation.
This puts the case fatality rate at 52 per cent.
Leading scientists have already warned an influenza is the pathogen most likely to trigger a new pandemic in the near future.
The prospect of a flu pandemic is alarming.
Although scientists have pointed out that vaccines against many strains, including H5N1, have already been developed, others are still in the pipeline.
