LOC18:45
15:45 GMT
KUWAIT, Dec 24 (KUNA) -- China announced here Monday that its human-use
bird flu vaccine had proved "safe" and "effective" during the second phase of
clinical tests.
Xinhua News Agency quoted Zhang Jiansan, vice-general manager of the
Sinovac Biotech, as saying that the second phase of clinical tests was carried
out from September to November 2007 after applying for human clinical trials
for the vaccine with the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration. A total
of 402 people aged from 18 to 60 years took the test.
Test results showed that the major index of the vaccine reached
international standards and performed well in the human body. None of the test
takers were found to have a serious negative reaction, which proved that the
vaccine was safe, stated Zhang.
The first human infection case of bird flu was reported in China's Hong
Kong in 1997 and immediately became a world epidemic disease. Up to now, the
world has seen 304 human infection cases of bird flu, among which 209 died.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that a maximum of 2.3 million
people in developed countries may go into hospital and 280,000 may die once
the influenza outbreak comes. The situation in developing countries may be
even worse.
Founded in 2001, Sinovac, known in China as Beijing Kexing Bioproducts
Limited Company, focuses on manufacturing and marketing human-use vaccines and
related products for infectious diseases such as Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B,
influenza and SARS.
The company was designated to cooperate with the state disease control and
prevention center to carry out the research and development for human-use bird
flu vaccine, to be used for preventing the disease among humans, since the
epidemic among birds was first uncovered in March 2004. (end)
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KUNA 241845 Dec 07NNNN