Vaccine development delay: The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated on Tuesday the 19th of May that it was taking longer than anticipated to prepare the seed stock needed to manufacture a vaccine for the H1N1 influenza virus.

The global health agency said the virus wasn't growing very quickly in the laboratory. That means vaccine makers won't be able to start production until mid-July 2009 at the earliest. Once the companies have it in hand, it takes about 4-6 months to produce the vaccine.

World wide situation: As of the 20th of May 2009 there have been a total of 10 243 cases and 80 deaths of influenza A (H1N1) infection officially reported to WHO coming from 41 countries, up from 9830 confirmed cases and 79 deaths from 40 countries yesterday (19 May 2009).

According to the WHO update, there was one newly reporting country in the past 24 hours: Greece; Taiwan has also reported its 1st case in the past 24 hours.

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