Tokyo: A Japanese government panel met today to consider a plan to give bird flu vaccines to 6,000 medical workers and officials to prepare for a possible pandemic, an official said.

Some 40 experts gathered here to discuss the proposal, which is believed to be the world's first plan to vaccinate thousands of people for a possible outbreak of a new type of flu, the health ministry official said.

Japan has stockpiles of so-called pre-pandemic vaccines for 20 million people produced using the deadly H5N1 strains of avian influenza found in Vietnam, Indonesia and China.

More than 200 people have died and poultry flocks have been devastated since avian influenza broke out in 2003.

Human victims consist mostly of people in close contact with sick birds. But the World Health Organisation warns that millions of people could die worldwide if the virus mutates into a form easily transmissible among humans.

Health minister Yoichi Masuzoe yesterday proposed using part of the government's stockpiled vaccines on about 6,000 workers at hospitals or quarantine, customs and immigration offices over the coming year.

The vaccine would be given to volunteers, who would be checked for side effects.
Source : PTI