Vaccine institute to help Pyongyang fight deadly flu

Korea Herald
Ahn Hyo Lim
8/24/2007

An international vaccine agency and North Korea have agreed to launch a joint project to fight diseases common among children in developing countries.

The International Vaccine Institute, based in Seoul, said yesterday that they will cooperate to conduct pilot vaccinations against Japanese encephalitis and haemophilus influenzae type b, which causes meningitis, on some 3,000 North Korean children by early next year.

Their project will also involve the establishment of a reference diagnostic laboratory in the communist country.

“Creation of a reference laboratory for diagnosis of Hib and Japanese encephalitis should not only help improve clinical management of children with these infections, but should also assist DPRK health authorities to better estimate the burden of these diseases in the DPRK,” said Dr. John Clemens, IVI director general.

Officials of the global vaccine R&D organization will visit Beijing later in the month to meet with North Korean health officials and discuss details of how they will cooperate, including the provision of vaccines and equipment, and the opening of the lab.

Haemophilus influenzae type b is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis among infants and children worldwide, killing an estimated 386,000 children every year.

Japanese encephalitis, primarily infects children in endemic areas across Asia, leaving approximately 60 percent of those who develop clinical illness either dead or neurologically disabled.

The IVI is an international organization devoted exclusively to developing and introducing new and improved vaccines to protect the world’s poorest people, especially children in developing countries.

It was established in 1997 as an initiative of the United Nations Development Program.

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