Algeria wants to reduce its order of swine flu vaccines from 20 to five million doses, as cases of the virus have declined in the north African country, the health ministry told public radio Sunday.
"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.
Derrar added that Algeria had already received 2.5 million vaccines.
Algeria had ordered 20 million vaccines but demand from the Algerian population, especially health workers was limited, dropping further as the virus declined in the country.
The last official statistics from the health ministry released on January 8, counted 54 deaths from the A(H1N1) virus in Algeria, and 808 confirmed cases.
Algeria is following moves by several big nations that rushed to order pandemic flu vaccine from pharmaceutical firms while it was being developed last year but now are trying to scale back their orders.
Officials have blamed the poor response to mass vaccination campaigns and a change in expected dosage.
Countries such as France have described talks with major drug companies on cutting back vaccine orders as "tough".
The World Health Organization‘s latest bulletin reported that the pandemic was losing momentum around the world, though still counted 463 deaths over the last week, bringing the total death toll to 15,174 since the virus emerged nearly a year ago.
Surce: Africa Daily
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