Vietnam produces human-use H5N1 vaccines on lab scale
HANOI - A Vietnamese institute has just succeeded in making 200 doses of human-use vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 in its laboratory, according to local newspaper Youth on Monday.
The Nha Trang Institute of Vaccine in the central province of Khanh Hoa will produce additional 2,000 doses of H5N1 vaccines for testing, assessing and clinical trials on humans within 18 months. The vaccines are being made from embryos in chicken eggs, the report said.
Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu patients, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003, the Health Ministry said on Feb. 10, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid- November 2005.
Vietnam plans to vaccinate poultry nationwide against bird flu viruses in two separate periods this year: from late February to April, and between September and October. Earlier, it vaccinated 246 million poultry turns. Each dose for a fowl is considered one turn while two doses for the same fowl are regarded as two turns.
Vietnam now has 190 million of bird flu vaccines in stock, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Xinhua - February 13, 2006.
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