Macao to buy one million doses of flu vaccines

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-11 13:59

MACAO -- As the threat of A(H1N1) flu outbreak is increasing, the government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has decided to order one million doses of vaccines for emergency use which will cost 100 million patacas (US$12.7 million), said Lei Chin Ion, director of the SAR's Health Bureau, on Wednesday.

Each Macao resident can acquire on average two doses of these vaccines, which will be shipped to Macao in October at the earliest, according to Lei, who is also a member of Macao's multi-department emergency and coordination center that is dedicated to handling all the prevention and control measures against A(H1N1) flu.

Members of the emergency and coordination center, which was headed by the SAR's Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah, held their first meeting on Wednesday.

However, Lei also said that the new vaccine has not been put into mass production, and its medical and side effects are still unknown, as result of which the authorities will make sure that the vaccine is prove effective in clinical tests by the drug companies, and acquires relevant sale permission before inoculating local residents with these products.

China's State Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will organize and coordinate 11 local drug companies in manufacturing vaccines in case of a pandemic of A(H1N1) influenza.

Lei did not say where the Macao authorities will purchase these vaccines from.

Latest statistics from the SAR's Health Bureau showed that there was no suspected or confirmed case reported in Macao by far.