On Wednesday, Beijing started to have free inoculation of the H1N1 influenza vaccine for people over sixty years old and children in junior and middle school.
The vaccination campaign, which is available for more than 1.8 million residents, will continue till October 31. Zhong Nanshan, an academic who is respected for his work in China's battle with the outbreak of the harsh acute breathing syndrome ( SARS ) in 2003, warned that "it still needs a little time to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the vaccine. The vaccine should be put into mass use only after it's been proved safe through tests in several pilot places," Zhong asserted. "Though vaccine inoculation is the basic way for the country to stop A ( H1N1 ) influenza, we need time to see whether it has complications on the human body," Zhong claimed.
On Monday, China's State Food and Drug Administration issued the first warrant for mass inoculation with domestic A ( H1N1 ) influenza vaccine, the first country in the world to do so. It commented that the safety and usefulness of the vaccines had been proved in clinical tests.
But the medical trial period for the vaccine was less than 3 months, in solid contrast with the present practices among the global medical community which normally takes many years for a safety test. "We admit the vaccine has some possible hazards, as any vaccine inoculation isn't a hundred per cent safe. But we suspect it is more safe for Chinese people to have the inoculation instead of being exposed to the disease," Zeng announced.
By Monday, all 31 provinces and municipalities on the Chinese mainland had reported A ( H1N1 ) influenza cases, with a total of 5,592. Though so far almost seventy per cent have recovered and no deaths have been reported, both the World Health Organization and domestic professionals say they assume the A ( H1N1 ) influenza pandemic will reach a maximum in autumn and winter, Health Minister Chen Zhu recounted Tuesday at a meeting.
He said if any vaccinated people showed side-effects or other negative symptoms, the case will be straight away reported to the local medical authorities which would take timely treatment measures.