NOTE: This Message was originally addressed to Tom Mckeever
      from Johnfoys@baarnie.tafe.sa.edu.au and was forwarded to you by Tom 
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ever
                           --------------------
From:         john foyster 
To:           Multiple recipients of list POLIO 
Date:         Thu, 25 May 1995 08:08:29 +0930
Subject:      Polio Still Widespread
 
Here's a cross-posting from another mailing-list which may be interesting
reading for this group.
 
Australia Vietnam Science-Technology Link
>>Supported by subscriber contributions<<
 
DOMESTIC POLIO VACCINES
 
HANOI - Vietnam will be able to provide up to 20 million
doses of vaccines against poliomyelitis - two-thirds of the
total needed for children this year - according to the
Ministry of Public Health.
 
This record supply of domestically-produced vaccines tops
last year's amount by four million doses, health officials
said.
 
Vietnam began to produce polio vaccines en masse two years
ago. Officials from POLIOVAC, a centre in Hanoi which makes
vaccines, said that by last year, Vietnam was able to
produce enough doses of the vaccination to cover targeted
groups in 23 northern provinces. Still, while up to
international quality standard, the sum did not approach the
36 million doses needed to immunise children from the
dreaded poliomyelitis. The remaining 20 million doses were
obtained from foreign donors through UNICEF Hanoi, a UNICEF
official told Vietnam News yesterday.
 
Foreign donors included Australia's AUSSAID (formerly
AIDAB), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency
(JICA), Rotary International, an international organisation
of leading businessmen, and the Centre for Disease Control
(CDC) of the American government which sent vaccines via the
World Health Organisation, The UNICEF official said.
 
This year close to the same amount of doses is needed to
reach the targeted, groups of children in the nationwide
vaccination campaign, health officials said at a conference
organised here last Friday.
 
The coming vaccination campaign will concentrate on two
groups of children. The first group includes children under
the age of one. Each child in this group needs three doses a
year. Only one dose is needed for each of the children in
the second group - children who are between one and five.
 
Polio vaccine production in Vietnam should increase yearly,
health of officials said. The production cost is extremely
low, and the quality standard has already been met. One dose
of the domestic-made vaccine costs a mere VND 603 (roughly
us$0.06, about half as much as a dose of a similar
foreign-made product, officials said.- VNS
 
Source: Vietnam News V.5 No.1352 May 10, 1995 p.2
 
John Foyster
Adelaide/AUSTRALIA
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