British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said on Tuesday it will donate 50 million doses of its swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to distribute to developing countries.

The drugs company is working with the WHO and health authorities to deliver initial shipments of the H1N1 vaccine by the end of November, it said in a statement.

"GSK is committed to supporting governments and health authorities around the world in their efforts to protect their populations against this pandemic," said GSK chief executive Andrew Witty said.

WHO director general Margaret Chan welcomed the "very generous donation".

"This is a real gesture of global solidarity towards those who would not otherwise be able to have access to the vaccine. WHO will now work to see that these vaccines are distributed to those who need them," she said.

GSK has also agreed to sell the vaccine to developing countries at a reduced price, the drugs company said, and is in talks with the WHO about a donation of its antiviral medicine, Relenza.

More than 5,700 people have died worldwide since the A(H1N1) virus was first discovered in April, most of them in the Americas region, according to the WHO.

earlier related report

US sick leave policy toughens swine flu fight: senator
Washington (AFP) Nov 10, 2009 –

Swine flu is causing "an American emergency" as employees who lack paid sick leave go to work despite being ill and spread the disease, US lawmakers were told Tuesday.

The A(H1N1) virus "is causing an emergency for workers and families across the country," Senator Chris Dodd told a Senate subcommittee hearing on paid sick leave in a time of pandemic flu.

The United States is the only developed nation without a national policy on paid sick leave, Dodd said.

Most government workers, including US legislators, have paid sick leave, but since it is not mandatory some 57 million US private sector workers, including many in low-paid jobs and tens of thousands working in school systems, lack the benefit.

For them, contracting the swine flu "means you have a choice: either go into work sick and risk infecting your co-workers or stay home and lose a day's pay," Dodd said.

The senator has introduced legislation to give US workers paid sick days if they or a family member come down with swine flu.

As the nation struggles to emerge from a punishing recession and double-digit unemployment, many Americans cannot consider taking unpaid sick leave, said Dodd.

"We're in the company — and I say this respectfully of these countries — of Lesotho, Liberia, Papua-New Guinea and Swaziland. Those countries and the United States are the five that don't have paid sick leave," Dodd said.

"Five nations, four of whom are struggling economies, barely surviving as nation-states, and the richest country in the world," he told a hearing in the Senate health, education, labor and pensions subcommittee.

A person who goes into work when they have swine flu will infect 10 percent of their co-workers, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has repeatedly urged people to stay at home if they fall ill with flu-like symptoms.

"If paid sick leave had been a reality when this pandemic began, we would be in better shape," Dodd said.

The A(H1N1) flu has infected as many as 5.7 million people in 48 US states and claimed 672 lives, including at least 129 children, according to CDC data.

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