Vietnam needs some five million doses of H1N1 influenza A vaccine for people at high risk of infection, according to National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology director Nguyen Tran Hien.

However, the first batches of vaccine cannot be imported until next year, according to Nguyen Ngan Quyen, director of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vietnam.

GSK anticipates having its first batch ready in September, and will give priority to countries that placed the first orders. Vietnam is not yet on the list, Quyen said.

“But, GSK Vietnam is willing to apply to the Ministry of Health for a permit to import H1N1 vaccine into Vietnam once a source is available, which will be in 2010 at the earliest,” she said.

In the meantime, Vietnam is researching its own vaccine production and hopes to bring out the first batches by 2011, said Nguyen Thu Van, director of Vaccine and Biotechnology Products Company No. 1.

Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, told AFP last week that it could be months before sufficient vaccine was available to combat swine flu

She put world production capacity at 900 million doses a year, for a global population of 6.8 billion.

Britain and France has already received their first batches of swine flu vaccine. Australia is gearing up for a massive vaccination program set to start in October, and Turkey hopes its first supplies of the vaccine will arrive by that time.

Vietnam’s health ministry on Sunday reported another 155 cases of H1N1 infection nationwide, with more schools closed down in the central and southern regions.

It was the second day in succession of more than 150 new cases turning up in a single day.

So far, 2,724 people have tested positive for swine flu in Vietnam since the first case in May. Two have died, while more than half have been discharged from hospital after full recovery.

Worldwide, some 209,000 people have caught the virulent flu strain since it emerged in April, and 2,180 have died from the virus, according to the WHO’s latest figures.

While 90 percent of severe and fatal seasonal flu cases occur in people aged above 65, most of those who die from swine flu are under the age of 50, the agency said.

Source: NLD, Thanh Nien