BEIJING, Oct. 28 -- Declaring that the United States, and indeed the whole world, is unprepared for a pandemic influenza, US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has announced another contract to manufacture a bird flu vaccine.

    "The hard truth is that the capacity doesn't exist within the United States to produce vaccines at sufficient speed and sufficient quantity to reach every American. That position exists all over the world and it needs to change." Leavitt said.

    Leavitt spoke at a news conference as the Bush administration finalized its plans for dealing with the possibility of a pandemic if the H5N1 bird flu strain mutates into a form that can easily be passed between humans.

    The US government has awarded Chiron Corporation a 62 million US dollar contract to combat a potential pandemic.

    The Chiron contract, the second bird flu vaccine contract awarded by the US government, follows a 100 million US dollar contract given to Sanofi-Aventis for produce shots to protect against the bird flu.

    It is not clear yet how many total shots the two companies would produce because dosages are still being worked out.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)