The working session was held by the ministry’s Bureau of Science of Training to review the Fluvax trials implemented by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Military Medical Academy in Hanoi.
“To date, after more than three months since the last injection shot, volunteers have seen no serious side effects, proving the safety of the vaccine,” said Doan Huy Hau, head of the academy’s epidemiology unit.
The trial began in late March on more than 30 volunteers aged 20-40, including seven scientists in the research group.
Subjects were administered two injections of the bird flu vaccine 28 days apart.
Hau said blood samples taken at different times showed protective antibodies in the volunteers.
Relevant agencies are drafting a report on the trial to be submitted to the Ministry of Health, according to a spokesperson from the institute’s Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1, which produced the vaccine.
If the ministry certifies the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, the second phase of testing would be implemented in five months on more volunteers, said company spokesperson Nguyen Tuyet Nga.
If the second phase were to be successful, the flu vaccine would be registered for production and circulation on the market, said Nga.
The company could produce several million doses of the vaccine annually with each does expected to cost VND40,000 (US$2.4), she added.
The research on Fluvax began in 2004.
Since 2003, Vietnam has seen 106 infection cases of the bird flu virus in 36 localities nationwide, said head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Nguyen Tran Hien at another meeting on Thursday.
Of those infected, 52 have died in Vietnam.
All five infection cases this year have been fatal, said Hien.
There have been at least 241 human deaths globally from the virus and some 380 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to World Health Organization data.
Reported by Nam Son |
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