Vietnam has succeeded in producing its own vaccine against the Rota virus at only a third of the price of foreign imported drugs.
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| Process of Rota virus vaccine production in Vietnam |
Each dose of the domestic vaccine will cost around VND200,000 (USD11) compared to the imported prices of up to VND700,000 (USD33.98).
Le Thi Luan, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health\'s Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Bio-medicines, the vaccine producer, said research on the Rota virus vaccine began in 1998, adding that "The quality of the vaccine is equivalent to Belgium\'s Rotarix vaccine which is currently used in Vietnam.”
According to Luan, the vaccine was tested on over 30 adults and 1,000 children aged from 12 weeks to six years in Phu Tho and Thai Binh provinces. Test results revealed the vaccine was safe for both adults and children.
Around 600,000 children in the world die of the Rota virus annually. In developing countries, child mortality due to the Rota virus accounts for between 20-40% of the total number of child fatalities annually.
In Vietnam, up to 50% of under five-years-olds admitted to hospital with acute diarrhoea suffer from the Rota virus. The virus kills nearly 7,000 children in Vietnam a year
