300,000 H1N1 Vaccinations Underway

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 April 2010

Health officials are wrapping up an initial round of vaccinations against the H1N1 virus, administering hundreds of thousands of shots in Phnom Penh and three provinces since March 24.

Officials said they expect to give out 300,000 shots in the capital and the provinces of Kandal, Kampong Cham and Kampng Chhnang.

H1N1, sometimes called swine flu, has killed six Cambodians since its onset.

The vaccinations, which began March 24, are the first portion of an estimated 1.5 million doses, provided by the French government and aimed mainly at children and pregnant women.

“The vaccinations will begin again from May to July to vaccinate people in 20 [remaining] provinces,” Sun Chan Soeun, director of the national vaccination program, said.

Cambodia to receive flu vaccination late this year: health official

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Health Ministry on Friday said that it will receive the vaccination for A/H1N1 flu from the World Health Organization (WHO) at the end of this year.

"We will receive the vaccination from the WHO late this year after we have appealed for help from other countries and partners," said Ly Sovan, deputy director for the communicable control department of Health Ministry.

"So far, we have not known clear information about the amount of the vaccination that we will get from the WHO," he said, adding that "when we have it, we will consider with our experts about injecting vaccination for people."

Ly Sovan said that up to now, Cambodia has 313 cases of the flu and four people were killed by the virus, including a pregnant woman.

China likely to be first to vaccinate population: WHO

Geneva, September 03, 2009
Hindustan Times

China is likely to be the first country to vaccinate its population against the swine flu, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, hailing the country's first home-grown A(H1N1) vaccine.

Beijing approved drugmaker Sinovac's single-dose vaccine on Thursday and another Chinese pharmaceutical company Hualan "appears to hope to get (its version of swine flu vaccine) approved next week," said Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads the UN health agency's vaccine research.

It is now "likely that China would be the first country to vaccinate its population" against the flu, from which at least 2,185 people around the world have died, added Kieny.

"The Chinese were very rapid on this, and we can congratulate them for having shared their trial results with us," she said.

Kieny said the WHO had received a copy of Sinovac's trial results on its single-dose vaccine, and that a WHO official was able to discuss the results with the pharmaceutical firm.

The trial results "appear promising in the sense that with a single dose of the vaccine, it leads to satisfactory results," she added.

Earlier Thursday, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis said trials on its swine flu vaccine also indicate that a single dose could be enough to offer protection against the A(H1N1) virus.

Last month WHO chief Margaret Chan said that vaccine supplies would be "extremely limited" in coming months, but one-dose drugs would go far to alleviate that concern.