Some countries have decided to give their unused swine flu vaccinations to other countries, for example, France and Germany. In those countries supply easily met demand. But, they did decide to sell their unused swine flu vaccinations rather than give them away for free.

If Britain did decided to give their left over swine flu vaccines - which is around sixty million then it would be likely that they would charge other countries to use them. Most poor countries would not be able to afford this. Unfortunately, it is more likely that a pandemic of swine flu would occur in a poorer country. The standard of living is much lower and people do not have access to medicine. The illness originated in a poor country - Mexico and most people did there. There have been casualties in the UK, around 360 people have now died from the virus.

There is a global shortage of the swine flu vaccine. Only three billion doses of the swine flu vaccine will be produced in the next year which will cover half the world's population according to the San Francisco Chronicle. What about the other half?

Western countries who have unused swine flu vaccines should donate them to poorer countries - eight countries including the US have pledged to donate ten per cent of their stockpiles but this is nowhere near enough.