Bahrain has ordered 200,000 doses of vaccine against swine flu as a precautionary measure, according to a report.

Since the disease has not reached a pandemic stage in Bahrain, the Health Ministry is ordering enough to immunise 100,000, about 10 per cent of the population, officials were quoted as saying by the Gulf Daily News report.

This percentage will include health workers who will have immediate contact with the virus, those with underlying health issues who may be particularly susceptible, an estimated 5,000 individuals planning to go on pilgrimage to Makkah and top-level government officials.

Ministry public health director Dr Khairya Moosa said although countries such as the UK were preparing to vaccinate their entire population against the H1N1 virus, in Bahrain the situation was different and required another approach.

'In the UK, swine flu has become a pandemic and has started to be transmitted from person-to-person rather than coming from abroad,' Dr Moosa told the newspaper.

'This is entirely different from Bahrain where most of the cases have originated from abroad in areas where the H1N1 virus is prevalent.

'We've had very few cases from close contact and we don't have the same degree of community level transmission.'

Based on this assumption, she said, the ministry was only ordering enough vaccines to immunise 100,000 people, a procedure that will likely to be completed by mid-October at the latest.

'The doses we've ordered will cost us around BD800,000, meaning that each vaccine will cost the government around BD4.

'There is also the second stage of our plan in which - if necessary - we can request a further 800,000 doses so we cover at least 50 per cent of the population within two years.

'The Cabinet has allocated around BD2.3 million to combat the virus, but this must also cover other necessary equipment and drugs (such as Tamiflu) as well.'

Dr Moosa said although there were no immediate plans to vaccinate the entire population, if the virus spread significantly in Bahrain over the coming months, it could be a measure they would be forced to take.

'The policy of distributing the vaccine remains under the control of the ministry and will follow current regulations, which means we will only distribute it to the private sector when we deem fit.

'This is because we need to ensure that everybody is following correct protocol and with an estimated two or three waves by 2011-end, we need to be able to calculate when it is best to immunise the population,' she said.

On Monday, a top the World Health Organisation (WHO) official warned that a fully-licensed vaccine might not be available until year-end.

WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research director Marie-Paule Kieny said since vaccines need to be vetted by regulatory authorities before mass-production, it could be months before any country is able to vaccinate its population.

Dr Moosa said the ministry was confident that a safe vaccination would be produced sooner rather than later.

'We are aware of WHO's concerns and whatever they recommend we will follow.

'The WHO is working very hard to make sure that the vaccine will be ready soon and the pharmaceutical companies developing the drug are very experienced.

'We've also been assured that if any mutations of the virus do occur, production of the vaccine will change accordingly, so we're all sure that a safe and effective immunisation programme will be ready by October.'

The country's first swine flu case emerged in May after a Bahraini student returning from a graduation ceremony in New York was diagnosed with the condition.

Since then, 39 people, including two Bahraini children aged two and 10 who tested positive on Wednesday, contracted the virus and w