Canada will spend 10.8 million Canadian dollars (9.7 million U. S. dollars) over the next three years on the research of A/H1N1 flu, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Friday.

Canada’s Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq (L) answers questions beside Dr. Alain Beaudet after announcing funding to create a network of researchers to speed up influenza research and test new vaccines against the H1N1 flu virus, during a news conference in Toronto, June 5, 2009. The network of 80 scientists from 30 research and public health institutions will get C$10.8 million ($9.7 million) over three years.

The project involves funding a new influenza network of 80 scientists from 30 research institutions across the country, which will focus on developing and evaluating vaccines.

“This work will help answer questions such as what makes an effective vaccine, are these new vaccines safe, will they work,” Aglukkaq at a press conference in Toronto.

Canada is also funding two other research initiatives from Laval University in Quebec City: a study of the genetic code of the A/H1N1 flu with a focus on how the virus changes over time and another on the mathematical modeling of the virus to determine how it spreads through the population.

The announcement came a day after the A/H1N1 flu was confirmed in two residents of the remote community of St. Theresa Point First Nation in western Canada’s Manitoba province.

The two people and 19 others with flu-like symptoms from the community of 3,200 people are currently in hospital in Winnipeg. In all, 200 people from the reserve have reported being ill in the past week, with the majority of them being treated in the community.

As of June 3, 1,795 laboratory-confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu have been reported in nine provinces and three territories in Canada.

Globally, it has infected 21,940 people in 69 countries, killing 125, WHO reported Friday.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet