Inside China's H1N1 Vaccine Laboratories

Ana Cole
10/01/2009
8:39am

Summary

The first company in the world that completed clinical trials of an H1N1 vaccine was Sinovac Biotech Ltd., located in Beijing, China. They also were the first to be approved by the Chinese government to produce millions of doses for the public. They are set to become the first country to begin mass inoculations around the beginning of October. The reason why China was able to produce an H1N1 vaccine was because they had many years of experience in vaccine research and development. Sinovac was also the only company to create a vaccine for SARS which was never used because the outbreak had subsided. This vaccine helped them to achieve the H5N1 (bird flu) vaccine, which then helped them get the H1N1 vaccine. It has been reported that 3.3 million vaccines have been ordered from Sinovac, 4 million from Hualon Biological and another 3 million from the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences. More than 9,000 cases of the H1N1 virus has been seen in China so far. Most people who were infected occurred in schools or due to school-related activities. The ultimate concern for China is that the H1N1 virus itself could expand and spin out of control.

Reaction

I think that it is great that China has came up with a vaccine for the H1N1 virus. It makes me feel somewhat safe to know that this vaccine well be available for people in the United State and around the world. On the other hand I am very worried that with winter around the corner the outbreaks of swine flu will affect a lot more people and there would not enough of the vaccine which people could take for precaution. I just hope and pray that this virus will not cause a lot of problems for the people around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/china.swine.flu.vaccine/index.html#cnnSTCText