The Institute for Vaccines and Medical Biologicals under Vietnam’s Health Ministry is stepping up preparations for making a vaccine against H1N1 flu virus in humans in late 2014. After good results of the first trial of its vaccine conducted on 48 healthy people in the southern province of Long An from April to Nov 2012, the institute expects to ask for the ministry’s permission at end-May to implement the second trial on 200-300 local people. If successful, the last trial will be carried out on 1,000 people before the vaccine can be produced en masse in late next year or early 2015, said Duong Huu Thai, deputy head of the institute. Each trial will last for six months, during which every aspect of the vaccine will be examined and assessed thoroughly, he said, adding that the price of such domestically-made vaccine will be equal to only one-third of those imported. The virus has caused four deaths in Vietnam so far this year. More than 11,200 people in Vietnam have been infected with H1N1 since it broke out worldwide in 2009. The A/H1N1 flu virus caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009. It is now a human seasonal flu virus that also circulates in pigs. The institute has also been empowered to make another vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu virus and has received about $3 million from the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. (Tuoi Tre – Youth May 18)
