VACCINE TESTED TO GET READY FOR NEW PANDEMIC

       The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) has its first samples of typeA (H1N1) influenza nasal spray vaccine and has begun tests with animals to study its safety and toxicity, GPO director Dr Vitthit Attavejchakul said yesterday.
       " We have made the decision to step forward and produce the new vaccine. Nothing has changed the of vaccine's production procedure," he insisted.
       The move comes after GPO scientists succeeded in culturing the virus in specific pathogen free eggs imported from Germany.
       The German eggs have produced low yields of the vaccine but,Vitthit said,World Health Organisation experts had suggested GPO continue testing the vaccine in animals for 10 days to check safety and toxicity before trying it out on volunteers.
       The GPO has already inoculated the virus seed vaccine into 1,500 specific pathogen free eggs and the results will be released soon. "I hope we'll have good news on this Friday," he said.
       Because the German eggs had produced a low yield of the new flu vaccine, GPO decided to turn to other countries and placed orders for the same type of eggs from the Charles River company, a US supplier in Massachusetts.
       But the first batch of these US eggs was damaged during transportation, resulting in a further delay to the vaccine testing process in Thailand. The next shipment of US eggs will arrive here on September 15, Vitthit said.
       The eggs will be cultured for seven days, then another seven days are needed to test the vaccines in animals before being given to humans.
       Based on the GPO's schedule, the first 20 million vaccine doses should be available in December when a second wave of the flu pandemic is likely in Thailand.
       To date, only Silpakorn University's Faculty of Pharmacy is contracted to produce 10 million doses of the newflu vaccine, so the GPO is negotiating with other parties to supply the remaining volume.
       Dr Thirawat Hemajutha of Chulalongkorn University cited a report from Mahidol University's Faculty of Science which has decoded the virus gene and found that the virus seed vaccine GPO imported from Russia has changed slightly and might have mutated.
       " I was surprised when I read this report. The virus might be stronger than its current strain," he said. "If GPO still uses this virus seed to produce vaccine it might cause errors," he added.
       He said he did not intend to panic the public over his warning but he wanted people to be aware of a likely second pandemic wave.
       He said pregnant women should be the first group to receive the new flu virus vaccine as their risk of mortality is fourtimes higher than of other people. Medical workers will be the second group, followed by those people who are in the high risk categories.
       To meet a second pandemic, he suggested pregnant women stay at home, while educational agencies should tell students to send addresses and contact numbers to their institutions in case they fall ill.
       Meanwhile, the Office of the Higher Education Commission's secretarygeneral Sumeth Yamnun has urged schools upcountry to prepare measures to fight the pandemic expected in two or three months.