August 27th, 2009

Reports Reuters:

Scientific advisers to President Barack Obama may have asked the government to speed up the availability of swine flu vaccines, but they are unlikely to be ready before October, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

And imperfect tests for the pandemic H1N1 virus means it will be impossible to get precise numbers on how many people are infected, said Dr. Thomas Frieden.

Nonetheless, swine flu is the No. 1 priority for the CDC, Frieden said in an interview.

“We have literally mobilized more than 1,000 people at CDC who work on H1N1,” Frieden said in the interview, conducted by Reuters and Associated Press to be aired on the C-SPAN television network on Sunday.

Read more at Reuters.