03.07.09 PM says flu vaccine 'on its way'
Source: Bangkok Post
Stocks enough to treat 1% of the population
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is playing down disquiet over the
influenza type-A (H1N1) outbreak and insisting the first batch of
vaccine against the virus will arrive in the country in September.
Public Health Minister Witthaya
Kaewparadai speaks on the phone with a Channel 3 television reporter
who was diagnosed with the type-A (H1N1) flu at the Chest Disease
Institute in Nonthaburi yesterday.
The prime minister's comments follow the reporting of the fourth and
fifth fatalities on Wednesday. He did not reveal the source of the
expected vaccine supplies.
Twenty-four flu patients, including 40-year-old Channel 3 reporter Noppakwan Naknuan, were being treated in hospitals yesterday.
The first batch of 600,000 preventative vaccines against the virus,
now under development, is expected to arrive in Thailand in September,
Mr Abhisit said.
The vaccine and antiviral stocks will be enough to treat 1% of the population, in line with international health standards.
The vaccines would first be given to health officials and high-risk
groups such as children aged under five and people aged over 65.
Thailand will also start developing the new influenza type-A vaccine
next month after receiving seed viruses for live attenuated vaccine
development from the World Health Organisation on July 12.
The vaccine development project will be conducted at a pilot flu
vaccine plant at Silpakorn University's faculty of pharmaceutical
sciences in Nakhon Pathom, Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO)
managing director Witit Artavatkun said.
''Thailand may be a bit too late to begin developing vaccine against
the H1N1 strain of influenza now the flu pandemic has already
occurred,'' Dr Witit said. ''However, it's better than having nothing
as a preventive tool against the flu pandemic.''
Dr Witit said the government was in the process of improving the
plant to meet the WHO-certified ''good manufacturing practice'' (GMP)
after being granted US$4 million (136 million baht) from the
WHO-organised Pledging Fund for vaccine development and the procurement
of the technology needed to build the plant.
The WHO last month gave Thailand the green light to use an advanced
vaccine production technology, developed by the Institute for
Experimental Medicine in St Petersburg, Russia, to make flu vaccines
for domestic and global use.
The technology is seen as a promising tool to control a potential
pandemic because it allows for the production of 30 times more vaccine
doses than the standard inactivated vaccine technology.
A second GPO laboratory has been transformed into a vaccine plant to
increase the production capacity to 2.8 million to 3 million doses of
vaccine a month. The amount of vaccine to be produced by the two plants
would be enough for only high-risk groups and those responsible for
patient care and national security.
Dr Witit said the agency had also been working on setting up a 1.41
billion baht, industrial scale, avian flu vaccine production plant.
The facility, which will be built in Kaeng Khoi district in Saraburi
province and under the process of e-auction procurement, will provide
long-term health security for Thai people against future flu pandemics.
Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai yesterday said he might
consider using his political authority to close schools during the
coming long weekend. His change in policy-making stance came after
several reports of flu outbreaks at education institutes nationwide. He
also believed tutorial schools would have to be closed to minimise the
spread of the virus.
| 
