China's self-made human avian influenza vaccine is waiting for the approval of a clinical test, said a health official Thursday.
Preclinical experiments of the vaccine, which started in May 2004, have ended. A clinical test will be carried out as soon as the State Food and Drug Administration approves it, said Wang Yu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccine for human avian influenza was jointly developed by the center and a Chinese drug company. Clinical tests will further prove its safety and effectiveness, he said at the first China-Thailand-Vietnam workshop on prevention and control of human avian influenza.
Officials and experts from the Chinese Ministry of Health, the disease control and prevention center, the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Vietnam, Hong Kong and Macao are sharing information and techniques to curb human avian influenza on Thursday and Friday.
A cooperative mechanism is to be set up by the three countries soon and the workshop will be held every one or two months.
(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2005)
