A safer and more effective vaccine for the highly contagious chicken pox disease has been developed in Changchun, the capital of northeast China's Jilin province.
According to the clinical trial conducted by its producer, the Changchun Institute of Biological Products (CCIBP), 98.89 percent of the children, aged from one to six years old, demonstrated immunity to chicken pox six weeks after being vaccinated with Freeze-dried Live Attenuated Varicella Vaccine.
According to the CCIBP the vaccine has been approved by both the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and the public health authority. It has also been rated one of China's major new products by the Ministry of Science and Technology and other agencies.
The CCIBP will be able to produce vaccines for 5 million people annually; the first phase of the product line will be completed by the end of this year。
Chicken pox, a member of the herpes family, is considered more of an irritant than a danger, but serious complications can arise from the viral infection, which can sometimes prove fatal.
Children below the age of seven, and especially infants, are highly susceptible to the epidemic, and the most effective prevention method is still the vaccine.
China now has 150 million children below the age of seven, and 20 million babies are born annually.
(China Daily November 14, 2002)
