HANOI: Vietnam plans to start its human trial of a locally- made H5N1 bird flu vaccine as early as next month, using 20 to 30 volunteers, said health officials.

The drug trial, to be carried out with US Government technical assistance, will be the latest of several global efforts to develop a vaccine for mass production, with research also going on in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The news comes as a new wave of bird flu sweeping Vietnam has killed a 20-year-old man, infected four others and triggered more than 100 poultry outbreaks nationwide since last month.

“Preparations for the clinical test of a human vaccine have been basically completed,” said Nguyen Tran Hien, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology here.

Hien said he expected testing to start next month, pending the health ministry’s approval, with the trial to wrap up next year.

In the tests, subjects would not be exposed to H5N1 — the viral strain that has killed 191 people worldwide since 2003 — but would be given the vaccine to look for early evidence of safety and test their antibody response.

 

Last month, Indonesia’s health ministry said US company Baxter Healthcare would next month start clinical trials of a bird-flu vaccine in Singapore and Hong Kong, using a strain of the virus found in Indonesia.