Bird Flu Vaccine Developed in St. Pete to Be Tested

ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 21 (Interfax-Northwest) – The bird flue vaccine developed at the flu research center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg will be tested on volunteers in the near future, a senior official from the center, Yelena Doroshenko, told Interfax.

“The vaccine is ready, but we have to test it on volunteers, who will include staff members of our center. If the results of the tests prove positive, industrial production may be launched,” she said.

Doroshenko said production of the vaccine, which is planned to take place at a facility in Ufa, may begin next spring. “Naturally the vaccine will not be widely used, because the virus does not spread from one person to another. The personnel of poultry farms and people contacting birds will have to be vaccinated,” she said.

She doubted the possibility of a pandemic in the near future, “because the bird migration season has ended.”