Vietnam is likely to test vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 on
human in August, after successful tests on animals, local newspaper Young People
reported yesterday.
The National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology has submitted its
proposal on the issue to the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Science and
Environment and the Health Ministry, and the tests will be conducted in August
if it gets the council's approval, the paper reported, quoting sources from the
Vietnamese Health Ministry.
The institute will conduct clinical trials on 20-30 local volunteers first,
and then on some 300 ones. The trials are expected to last at least 12 months.
Vietnam has succeeded in making human-use vaccines against H5N1 in its
laboratory. It will start manufacturing the vaccines late this year with initial
annual capacity of 2-3 million doses, an official from the institute told Xinhua
recently.
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 May 24, noting that it has seen no new human cases of
infections since mid-November 2005.
