Romania will begin producing a vaccine for humans against the H5N1 bird flu virus in less than three months, Romanian Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said on Saturday.

Hungary will transfer to Romania the technological know-how to produce the vaccine and the two countries have decided to manufacture the vaccine in Romania, Nicolaescu was quoted by the Romanian news agency Rompres as saying.

Each year, the southeast European country will produce 400 million to 500 million units of the vaccine, which can measure up to the criteria set by the World Health Organization, according to Nicolaescu.

Earlier this moth, Hungary announced the successful development of the vaccine, which had been approved by the national pharmaceutical institute for commercial production.

Bird flu has hit about 40 locations including a small Black Sea resort in Romania, since the virus was first detected in the Danube Delta in October. To date, no human case has been reported in the country.

Source: Xinhua