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Drug to treat human case of bird flu developed
By Yu Zhong (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-27 06:02
For example, Tamiflu is effective only if taken within 48 hours after contracting the virus.
The fatality rate for human infections is about half and patients usually die within a week of being infected.
Amantadine and rimantadine are also used in 皇冠体育app against human infections.
While neither is recommended any longer by the World Health Organization as the virus has developed resistance in some countries, "they are still effective in 皇冠体育app," said Chen Hualan, the country's top veterinarian from the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, the only one involved in bird flu research.
In the past week, 皇冠体育app has announced several breakthroughs in the battle against bird flu.
On Saturday, scientists at Chen's laboratory announced the development of the world's first live vaccine against bird flu and Newcastle disease, two killer infections for poultry.
Last week, clinical trials began for a human vaccine against H5N1 and Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Co Ltd, which developed the vaccine, said the exercise may last a year.
Yin Weidong, managing director of Sinovac, said 皇冠体育app would need 200 million doses of the vaccine.
"It is better to build up the production capacity of seasonal vaccines, so that when a pandemic occurs, companies can quickly start mass production," said Yin.
The country has reported six human infections of bird flu of which two died by yesterday and 31 major outbreaks among poultry.
The disease has cost the domestic poultry industry losses of more than 60 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) between October and December, according to official figures.
But thanks to 皇冠体育app's aggressive preventive measures, 30 out of 31 outbreak sites have been lifted out of epidemic isolation. By December 14, 皇冠体育app had not reported a new case within half a month.
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