It's only a matter of time before a deadly flu pandemic strikes, an international vaccine expert has warned, saying that the world is ill-prepared to cope with a major outbreak of the disease - possibly because the manufacture of vaccines is governed by profit. "We are talking about a killer influenza that would kill probably tens of millions of people," John D. Clemens, director of the International Vaccine Institute, said Friday. "We're not talking about if, we're talking about when."The United States is suffering a shortage of flu vaccines after a British supplier, Chiron Corp., was barred from shipping between 46 million and 48 million doses to the nation because of contamination at its plant. "The current shortage of vaccine in the United States can be attributed to reliance on too few producers," Clemens said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "Globally, in terms of vaccine development and production that could respond quickly to a killer influenza pandemic, we're inadequately prepared."
Clemens - whose institute has been helping to introduce new vaccines against diarrhea infections, bacterial meningitis and mosquito-born viral diseases for developing nations since 1999 - warned that similar supply disruptions could hit vaccines against other pandemics. "Something like 80 percent of the world's measles vaccines come from one company in India," Clemens said. "If that company had a problem like Chiron had, it would be a disaster."