Vietnam - Vietnam may produce H5N1 flu vaccine next year

The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1 under the Ministry of Health is conducting the last phase of a clinical trial of a H5N1 flu vaccine for human use and expects to produce the vaccine next year.

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According to Nguyen Thu Van, director of the company, after many studies, the company created the vaccine in 2004 and had conducted 2 clinical trials - on 30 people in the first and 300 people in the second.

“After these successful trials, we are conducting the third one on about 1,200 healthy volunteers in Thanh Hoa City and Ha Nam Provinces,” Van told VnExpress Newswire.

Like the previous ones, the last trial is being conducted in accordance with the strict European standards, Van said.

If the last trial succeeds, she said the company would apply for a license from the ministry to produce the vaccine in 2013 at a cost that is far lower than the cost of importing the vaccine.

An effective H5N1 flu vaccine at a cheap price will make it easily accessible to more people, she said.

According to the Central Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute, the H5N1 flu virus affected 5 to 7 people every year from 1997 to 2010 and most of the patients had eaten or contacted poultry contracting the virus.

There has yet to be evidence for human-to-human transmission of the virus, the Institute said.

At a meeting last Saturday, the National Steering Committee for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control reported that the H5N1 avian flu had spread to 11 provinces and cities: Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Ha Nam, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Soc Trang and Kien Giang.

Two people had died from the disease while about 34,000 heads of poultry had been culled because of the virus, the board said.

In order to prevent the spread of the disease, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked the Ministry of Finance to facilitate the import of 50 million of doses of H5N1-Re 5 vaccine as soon as possible.

TUOITRENEWS

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