1st dose of H1N1 vaccine to be nasal spray

Washington, Sep 19: US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that the first vaccine doses for the H1N1 influenza will be available in the form of a nasal spray and about 34 lakh doses will be ready for distribution by the first week of Oct 2009.

On Friday, Sep 18, Epidemiologist Jay Butler, chief of the CDC's 2009 H1N1 vaccine task force said, the nasal spray can be used by patients between the age of two and 49 and this vaccine that would be produced by five manufacturers would be distributed through 90,000 providers.

"The government has purchased 19.5 crore doses. It's a very large logistical undertaking," Butler said.

He also said that injectable vaccine shots would be available by early Oct, and CDC said it estimated that two crore vaccine doses a week would be delivered by the end of Oct.

OneIndia News