Vietnam to test its own bird flu vaccine on humans, poultry — Why not? They have a lot of incentive.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vietnam will test a homegrown bird flu vaccine on humans and poultry this summer after successful tests on mice and monkeys, state-controlled media reported Saturday.
The trials will be conducted in August on a group of 10 to 20 people to check the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted Nguyen Thu Van, director of the Hanoi-based Vaccine and Biological Products No. 1 Company as saying.
The vaccine, which has been successfully tested on mice and monkeys, will later be given to 200 to 300 other people who are healthy and have close contact with poultry, she said.
The same vaccine also will be tested on poultry in June, Van said.
Meanwhile there is this:
Lexington Herald-Leader | 04/14/2005 | Cause of mishap sought — If you’ve been following this story there seems to be gossip about new bad news coming out this next week.
The problem came to light March 26, when Canadian health officials identified the virus during routine testing of a sample from a patient in British Columbia.
Canadian scientists at a national lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba, immediately launched an investigation, which determined that a small amount of the pandemic virus from a test kit had contaminated the patient sample, which was being screened in the same lab area. That discovery prompted Canadian officials to alert the CDC and WHO, setting off the scramble to prevent an outbreak.
And it’s not like the big drug companies will get involved unless there is big profits and liability protection.
For whatever the information is worth I’ve just been invited to test some bird flu vaccine at UCLA. These are the same people that had me test the smallpox vaccine a few years ago. Very porfessional, of course.
They are probably – like last time – taking advantage of some Federal grant asking for research results. I don’t yet know if they’re testing potency like last time or what.
By the way, I’m going to tell them that I’m NOT a guinea pig, but a cornish game hen – or cock, if that isn’t inappropriate – and see if they find it funny. They’ll probably be be nice enough to laugh once.
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