News: CSL UPDATE 1-Finland to start bird flu vaccinations for humans

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HELSINKI, June 25 (Reuters) - Finland will as soon as possible begin to offer preemptive bird flu vaccination to some workers with exposure to animals, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or caused the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry globally in recent years and has increasingly been spreading to mammals, including cows in the United States and, in some cases, also to humans.

Finland has not detected the virus in humans, THL said.

The Nordic country has bought vaccines for 10,000 people, each consisting of two injections, as part of a joint

EU procurement

of up to 40 million doses for 15 nations from Australian manufacturer CSL Seqirus (CSL) .

Finland said it procured vaccines for people it deems to be at risk, such as workers at fur and poultry farms, laboratorians that handle bird flu samples and veterinarians who work as animal control officers in regions where fur farms are located.