Translated material
Chicken dose
Tests of the domestic bird flu vaccine were successful
Not only chickens, but also people will soon be able to get vaccinated against bird flu in Russia. Yesterday, the director of the Research Institute of Influenza of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, academician Oleg Kiselev, announced the successful completion of the tests of the domestic influenza vaccine taking place at his institute. In fact, according to Mr. Kiselev, three drugs were tested at once. “We tested positive for one out of three,” he said. The academician did not fail to notice that he himself was among the volunteers. “I got vaccinated in June,” he said. “Within three hours I arrived in Vienna, walked around and went to bed - that’s all the impressions of the vaccination.”The director of the Influenza Research Institute is confident that the Russian vaccine will be enough for everyone. According to him, up to two million doses of vaccines against the H5N1 virus could be produced weekly if necessary during an epidemic. “So we will cope with this, unlike many other countries,” said Mr. Kiselev, recalling that now there is a struggle for future markets, which have not yet been divided by pharmaceutical manufacturers. The goal, he said, is for “Russia to become a major exporter of influenza vaccines.” He referred to the “new elements” contained in Russian developments that make our vaccine “competitive.”
However, the flu specialist’s optimism is not yet shared by officials, who will have to make a decision on the mass launch of production of the new drug. Rospotrebnadzor could not give a Vremya Novostey correspondent even an approximate time frame for the start of vaccination of the population against bird flu. The press service of the sanitary service referred to the fact that Academician Kiselev has so far announced only scientific research results. They have not yet been summarized by the sanitary department and have not been formalized in specific documents.
As for the fight against ordinary flu, which is no longer an imaginary, but a real threat, this year, according to Oleg Kiselev, Russia is ready to release a record amount of influenza vaccine since the times of the Soviet Union. Immunization of the population is carried out within the framework of the national project “Health”, and sufficient funds have been allocated for these purposes. Rospotrebnadzor, in particular, considers it necessary to vaccinate 22 million people. These are people from the so-called “risk groups” who will receive vaccinations at the expense of the state: medical workers, employees of educational institutions, adults over 60 years of age, children attending preschool institutions, and students in grades 1-4. In addition to this, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Gennady Onishchenko recommended that regional authorities “consider the possibility” of immunizing other groups of the population, including “unorganized” preschool children and schoolchildren in grades 5–11.
Vaccination against influenza, as is known, should not occur during the influenza season, but the day before. As Oleg Kiselev clarified yesterday, people in Moscow and St. Petersburg should get vaccinated now. This year, according to Mr. Kiselev, the flu will sweep across Russia in two waves. The first can begin in November-December, the second in January-February. In his opinion, this will be a new form of flu, which will mainly affect children. The director of the influenza institute did not even rule out that “we will have to resolve the issue of school holidays,” meaning the possibility of extending them in order to prevent an epidemic. Scientists and doctors will speak in more detail about this winter's flu tomorrow at a special session of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences dedicated to the upcoming epidemic season.