SII resumes research on vaccine for bird flu

Updated on: 08 February,2011 07:48 AM IST |
Alifiya Khan |

Even as the collector's office prepares to roll back the Epidemic Act and declare the city free of swine flu, the Serum Institute of India (SII) too has decided to move on

Even as the collector's office prepares to roll back the Epidemic Act and declare the city free of swine flu, the Serum Institute of India (SII) too has decided to move on.

It was the first company in the country to develop a nasal spray for H1N1.

The company has now resumed its research on a vaccine for the deadly infection H5N1, commonly known as bird flu. Dr Rajeev Dhere, project director (vaccines) at SII, said though research for the bird flu vaccine had started two years ago, the project had been kept on the back burner when the company took up vaccine development for swine flu.

"Now that the swine flu vaccine is out and has been accepted in the market, we will resume work on bird flu vaccine. The vaccine is in research phase and will soon reach the clinical trial stage. However, it could take more than a year before it is finally out," he said.

Bird flu also known as avian influenza is a highly contagious and deadly disease and is known to have a high death rate as it kills at least 60 per cent of the people it infects. It was first detected in Nawapur area of the state's Nandurbar district and within five days, 2.53 lakh birds were culled for fear of them being infected.