CSL's new influenza vaccine centre in Melbourne is the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and Australia's first line of defence against this serious infectious disease.

Expanded and upgraded at a cost of more than $30 million, the new facility has the capacity to meet inter-pandemic customer vaccine requirements for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere winters, optimising plant capacity all year round. Should a pandemic occur, CSL is now also well positioned to produce enough vaccine to protect the entire Australian population.

CSL is contracted to supply 65% of Federal Government requirements for its national vaccination program against influenza targeting people over 65 and Torres Straight Islanders over 50. This year, CSL also had to make up for a shortfall in vaccine from another supplier, an unexpected but useful capacity test for our expanded manufacturing facilities.

Influenza disease of varying severity occurs every year as a result of minor changes in circulating strains (know as antigenic shifts) of influenza viruses and waning immunity in human populations. In epidemic years, many thousands of people around the world die from influenza or complications arising from infection with this disease.

Unlike the minor changes that occur from year to year in circulating strains of influenza virus, a pandemic virus (the result of an antigenic drift) will be an influenza variant that the population as a whole has not been exposed to previously. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), influenza pandemics may be expected to occur three or four times each century. The last in Australia was in 1968.

The WHO undertakes surveillance of influenza around the world, monitoring disease activity and circulating strains. Health authorities and manufacturers work closely with the WHO to develop the inter-pandemic influenza vaccines required to combat annual outbreaks.

The WHO and other international bodies warn that the threat of an influenza pandemic is both inevitable and imminent. In Australia and throughout the world, research and development work is being carried out so that we can better anticipate and effectively respond to the next influenza pandemic.

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