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Researcher Says Bird Flu Vaccine Tests May Begin in November- December

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 21:01 CDT

MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - The tests of an experimental series of bird flu vaccine will begin in November-December and its production in March.

"The flu research center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences has had the vaccine for a long time. It has been working on the vaccine since May. Its test programs have long been ready. We will begin tests on volunteers in November-December and expect to launch the first batch of the product in March," director of the center Oleg Kiselyov told Moscow reporters on Tuesday.

Kiselyov said that if in 3.5% of the volunteers body temperature rises to 38 degrees during tests, the vaccine will be rejected as unfit for use.

Kiselyov said no sudden outburst of bird flu among Russians should be expected, because the virus has been circulating in the world since 1997 and changing too slowly to cause an epidemic.

"This is not an explosive process. There will evidently be an epidemic some day, but we can prepare for it [through vaccination]," he said.

Kiselyov said that an epidemic among humans in Russia will break out only if the virus develops into a form more dangerous for people. "However, it may also develop in the opposite direction. The virus is simultaneously changing in different directions with its pathogenic abilities decreasing and increasing," he said.

Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English

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