Vietnam is likely to test vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 on human in August, after successful tests on animals, local newspaper Young People reported Wednesday.

The National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology has submitted its proposal on the issue to the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Science and Environment and the Health Ministry, and the tests will be conducted in August if it gets the council's approval, the paper reported, quoting sources from the Vietnamese Health Ministry.

The institute will conduct clinical trials on 20-30 local volunteers first, and then on some 300 ones. The trials are expected to last at least 12 months.

Vietnam has succeeded in making human-use vaccines against H5N1 in its laboratory. It will start manufacturing the vaccines late this year with initial annual capacity of 2-3 million doses, an official from the institute told Xinhua recently.

Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu patients, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003, the Health Ministry said on May 24, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid- November 2005.

Source: Xinhua