WHO is concerned about side effects from China's H1N1 vaccine

China has developed a vaccine against influenza A / H1N1 and will become the first country in the world to begin a major vaccination campaign. However, the World Health Organization has had concerns about vaccine side effects.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said: " We must be ready to accept the fact that adverse effects can occur. Sometimes side effects arise even though it is very rare ."

According to the China Post Office, the vaccination may start in the next few weeks, before the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1. This vaccine, called PANFLU.1 , is produced by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, suitable for people aged 3 to 60 years old.

Sinovac said the one-dose vaccine has been approved by China's National Biological and Pharmaceutical Products Control Institute, and has a Certificate of Circulation of Biological Products. More than five million doses of vaccine are ready to ship at the end of September.

The China Post Office The morning quoted Chinese Health Minister Chen Truc that about 200,000 people who first participated in the celebration of the founding of the country will be vaccinated. Other high priority people are students from 5-19 years old, people with chronic diseases (especially heart disease, respiratory disease) and pregnant women.

The vaccination program also targets health care workers, police, military personnel and quarantine staff.

Up to now, there have been 5,592 people infected with H1N1 reported in 31 inland provinces of China, but no deaths have occurred. " Because the number of people infected is increasing, especially since the end of August, we have begun to have serious cases, " Tran said.

The newspaper reported about 65 million Chinese vaccination plans by the end of the year.

The Chinese Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) last week granted licenses to two vaccine factories - Sinovac in Beijing and Hualan Biological Engineering in Ha Nam. The SFDA said it could consider licensing a number of firms capable of producing flu vaccines later this month.

Meanwhile, in Europe, some pharmaceutical companies will submit clinical trial data in the next few weeks, GlaxoSmithKline seems to be among the first.