February 21, 2005

Vietnam to produce bird flu vaccine this year

Vietnam plans to produce vaccines for the H5N1 bird flu virus and research into producing bird flu-testing kits this year.

The vaccine production will be implemented if upcoming tests of vaccines on people show positive results, according to the country's national Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute.

Vietnam, which has tried flu vaccines on mice, chickens and monkeys, has found that these vaccines are effective on mice and chickens. The final result of the vaccination on monkeys will be released late February.

Vietnam started researching vaccines for the bird flu virus strain H5N1 in early 2004, after three outbreaks of bird flu killing 32 local people since Dec.26, 2003.

Bird flu has killed and led to the forced culling of more than 1.5 million fowls in the country's 35 cities and provinces since January this year. Up to date, 10 localities have detected no new bird flu-affected spots in their territories for at least 21 days.