MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - A large-scale vaccination campaign against swine flu is scheduled to start in the U.S. in mid-October, local media reported on Wednesday.
The vaccination program, expected to be run at some 90,000 locations across the U.S., was announced after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially approved on Tuesday the new A/H1N1 vaccine, CNN said.
"We think the first doses of some of the vaccine forms should be available in about three weeks," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the station.
The total number of doses to be produced in the U.S. is about 195 million, local papers said, adding that the first 45 million doses would be distributed among hospitals and schools.
Vaccination will be on a voluntary basis, with priority given to five high-risk groups, including pregnant women, children, young people under 24, adults from 25 to 64, who suffer with asthma, diabetes and some other diseases, and medical staff who work with flu victims.
"We will have enough vaccine available for everyone," Kathleen Sebelius from the Department of Health and Human Services was quoted by the TV channel as saying.
She said vaccine tests indicated that healthy adults can be protected by a single shot, with full immunity achieved in about 10 days, the Miami Herald reported.
Last week, clinical tests of a live swine flu vaccine started in the northwest Russian city of St. Petersburg, involving some 72 volunteers. The research, including inactivated vaccine tests to be launched after September 18, should be completed in November.
Earlier, in August, Russian authorities said they would allocate 4 billion rubles ($125 million) in 2009-2010 to develop a vaccine for swine flu.
