The H1N1 outbreak may eventually affect two billion people, the WHO says [AFP]

The government said on Thursday that it would buy 21 million doses of the vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical company CSL.

Two million doses will be distributed to doctors from next week, with pregnant women, the chronically ill and healthcare workers getting treatment first.
 
"I think it's anticipated by the middle or end of September we will be starting to vaccinate the priority groups that, of course, are the most vulnerable," Nicola Roxon, the health minister, told reporters.

Australia is in the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter and flu season and has 32,224 confirmed cases of H1N1 among its population of 21 million, with 121 deaths associated with the pandemic.

Most cases are in the most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared H1N1 a full pandemic in June and the flu has now spread to nearly 180 countries.

In its latest update last week, the WHO said laboratory-confirmed deaths from the flu strain totalled at least 1,462.

The H1N1 flu outbreak has spread around the world since emerging in Mexico in April and could eventually affect two billion people, according to the WHO.

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