Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on Thursday started operation of a vaccine plant in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa capable of producing about 1.5 million doses of A/H5N1 influenza vaccine for human use a year. The plant is the first of its kind in Vietnam and is one of the six first plants funded by the World Health Organization (WHO) in developing countries, according to the ministry’s Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biology (IVAC). The H1N1 virus, which caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009, is now a human seasonal flu virus that also circulates in pigs. The virus spreads between people in the same way that seasonal flu viruses spread, while H5N1 causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza or bird flu. Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally but the virus rarely spreads from person to person. When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%, according to WHO. As of Sept 2013, more than 11,200 people in Vietnam had become infected with the H1N1 virus since it broke out worldwide in 2009. The virus killed 70 people by end-2011 before easing last year. (Tuoi Tre –Youth Dec 13 p2, VTC 14 Dec 12, vietnamplus.vn Dec 12)
