Children under 9 to get 2 doses of A(H1N1) vaccine

One shot will suffice for those over nine, noted the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

This pertains to vaccines produced by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and excludes those made by sole local vaccine manufacturer Adimmune Corp, the CECC said.

Only infants between six months to one year of age, however, are asked to be administered the vaccine developed by Novartis at present.

Other recipients will not be able to choose the vaccine they receive.

Novartis has completed testing on human subjects and its vaccine has shown to produce a robust immune response.

The United States has adopted the same policy of recommending two flu shots for children nine and younger and one dose for persons 10 years of age and older.

The government has procured 15 million doses of the A(H1N1) vaccine, five million from Novartis and 10 million from Adimmune.

Assuming every child under nine is to each receive two imported vaccine shots, this would exhaust four million doses of vaccine supplied by Novartis, said a United Evening News report.

Adimmune is currently in the final stage of clinical trials on humans, the results of which will be revealed before the end of the week, wrote the paper.

Should findings show that a single dose of vaccine made by Adimmune will be sufficient to develop an adequate immune response, there will be enough vaccine to inoculate another 11 million people.

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