Fifteen European countries, excluding Spain, will receive 665,000 doses of bird flu vaccine.

The goal is to prevent people from becoming infected, especially those most exposed to the virus, such as poultry plant workers and veterinarians, and to prepare for a possible pandemic.

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The European Union, through its Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), has contracted to jointly procure up to 665,000 doses of vaccines against the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The agreement includes an option to purchase up to 40 million more doses over the next four years.

The initiative aims to prevent the spread of avian influenza to people, especially those most exposed to the virus, such as poultry farm workers and veterinarians, and to prepare for a possible pandemic. The European Commission recalled that this vaccine is the only preventive measure against zoonotic avian influenza approved in the European Union.

Fifteen EU and European Economic Area countries are participating in the joint acquisition with Seqirus UK Ltd, although Spain is not one of them. This contract allows each country to adjust its vaccine orders to suit its specific public health needs. Stefan De Keersmaeker, a spokesman for the Public Health Commission, explained that the purpose of joint procurement is to provide additional options to member states, but they can choose their own national vaccine procurement procedures if they wish.

Seqirus UK Ltd is licensed to market this vaccine in the EU, intended for adults and effective against H5 strains of the avian influenza virus. The first shipments will be sent to Finland for immediate vaccination of at-risk workers, in accordance with that country’s requests, and will then be distributed to other participating countries.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently assesses the risk of infection for the general population as low to moderate for those working with infected birds. However, some variants of the virus can mutate, increasing its ability to infect other species, including humans. Cases in humans can range from asymptomatic or mild (conjunctivitis, mild respiratory illness) to severe (pneumonia requiring hospitalization) and, in some cases, resulting in death.

At this time, human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus has not been confirmed, and there are no active cases of human infection in the EU or European Economic Area. The Commission has already signed joint procurement contracts with Seqirus in 2019 and GSK in 2022 for their pandemic influenza vaccines Foclivia and Adjupanrix, respectively.