Hungary Set to Start Bird Flu Vaccine Human Trial
HUNGARY: August 24, 2005
BUDAPEST - Hungary will start human trials of a bird flu vaccine as soon as the country's pharmaceutical ethics committee approves the trials, Public Health Office spokesman Emese Ritook told state news agency MTI on Tuesday.
Ritook said animal testing had already been completed and that the human trial would start with 150 people, including Hungary's chief medical officer Laszlo Bujdoso.
Blood samples will be taken to prove the vaccine's effectiveness three weeks after immunisation, then again after three and six months, Ritook said.
Provided tests are successful, production of the vaccine will start if World Health Organisation registers virus transmission from human to human.
US health officials said earlier this month that a vaccine produced by France's Sanofi-Aventis had produced an immune response in humans. In July, US researchers said Roche AG's influenza drug Tamiflu suppresses the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, which is dangerous to humans.
Hungarian health workers and the elderly will be the first to get the new vaccine, but after that it will be accessible to anyone, Ritook said.
Ritook said 450 doses of the vaccine have been produced so far, all ready for human testing.
Kazakhstan's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday that an outbreak of bird flu in seven villages was H5N1. There are concerns the outbreaks in Kazakhstan and Russia could spread to the European Union via migrating birds.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
BUDAPEST - Hungary will start human trials of a bird flu vaccine as soon as the country's pharmaceutical ethics committee approves the trials, Public Health Office spokesman Emese Ritook told state news agency MTI on Tuesday.
Ritook said animal testing had already been completed and that the human trial would start with 150 people, including Hungary's chief medical officer Laszlo Bujdoso.
Blood samples will be taken to prove the vaccine's effectiveness three weeks after immunisation, then again after three and six months, Ritook said.
Provided tests are successful, production of the vaccine will start if World Health Organisation registers virus transmission from human to human.
US health officials said earlier this month that a vaccine produced by France's Sanofi-Aventis had produced an immune response in humans. In July, US researchers said Roche AG's influenza drug Tamiflu suppresses the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, which is dangerous to humans.
Hungarian health workers and the elderly will be the first to get the new vaccine, but after that it will be accessible to anyone, Ritook said.
Ritook said 450 doses of the vaccine have been produced so far, all ready for human testing.
Kazakhstan's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday that an outbreak of bird flu in seven villages was H5N1. There are concerns the outbreaks in Kazakhstan and Russia could spread to the European Union via migrating birds.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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