afrol News, 8 February - Algerian health officials are negotiating the reduction of its order of swine flu vaccines from 20 to five million doses, saying the cases of the virus have drastically declined in recent months.

Algeria had ordered 20 million vaccines from British laboratory GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), but the demand from the Algerian population was limited, according to health officials, further stating that the decline of the cases of the flu in the country had also reduced the demand for vaccine.

"We communicated our concerns to the provider who understood them and we are currently in negotiations over the clauses in the contract," the head of the swine flu centre in Algeria, Fawzi Derrar, said.

Mr Derrar also said that Algeria had already received 2.5 million vaccines.

Last Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) had reported that the H1N1 flu pandemic continued to decline throughout the world but had caused 463 extra deaths in one week, bringing the total death toll to 15,174 since the virus emerged nearly a year ago.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories