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Human Tests of Bird Flu Vaccine Successful in Hungary

Posted on: Thursday, 20 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

Human tests of bird flu vaccine successful in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The vaccine trial on humans against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu proved successful, Hungarian Health Minister Jeno Racz said Wednesday.

During the tests, antibodies against the H5N1 virus were found in blood of the volunteers who were injected with a vaccine, Racz said. "The results are preliminary but I can say with 99.9 percent certainty that the vaccine works."

The minister himself and two other senior health officials were among the first 100 volunteers, all from the healthcare sector.

The H5N1 virus has been detected in several European countries including Turkey and Romania, which boarders Hungary. The epidemic has a possibility to spread into more European countries, where high alerts are being kept against it.

The Hungarian government has promised to vaccinate all its citizens for free against bird flu and may market its own vaccines abroad if tests are a success.

However, experts say there is no evidence that such a vaccine would definitely work in a future human pandemic because the virus has not yet mutated to that state. Racz admitted study results still need to be verified.

Hungary has the capacity to produce 500,000 vaccinations per week in the event of a world epidemic, the health minister said.

Hungary boasts one of the most competitive pharmaceutical industries in the world and has highly reputed laboratories.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu first broke out among poultry in Asia in 2003, spreading to humans and killing more than 60 people, mostly in Vietnam. The epidemic has also killed tens of millions of birds.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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