Japan is to become the first country in the world to vaccinate thousands of officials against bird flu.

Six thousand health workers and other staff will be inoculated over the next few months, and the programme might be extended to cover millions more.

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But there are fears that an outbreak elsewhere in Asia could spread quickly in Japan, which has some of the world's most densely-populated areas.

Sensible or over-sensitive?

Japan has stockpiled 20 million doses of so-called "pre-pandemic" bird flu vaccine for use after a major outbreak.

The vaccine has been made using the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease collected in Vietnam and Indonesia.

The plan to use 6,000 doses of that vaccine to inoculate doctors, quarantine inspectors and other health and immigration officials is a preventative measure - taking precautions to levels not seen anywhere else in the world.

The programme could be expanded to 10 million doses if its safety and effectiveness can be guaranteed.

But is this sensible or an over-reaction to the threat posed by bird-flu?

Japan, of course, is probably the only Asian country which has the resources to do this.

But the World Health Organization does not sound convinced that the plan would improve the chances of Japan weathering a major bird flu outbreak, describing the scheme as a big roll of the dice.

(BBC)

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