Enterovirus 71 vaccine could be available in three years: official

2011/09/13 Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) A vaccine against enterovirus 71 (EV-71) has already passed the first phase of clinical trials and could be available for children in Taiwan in three years time, Hsiao Mei-ling, deputy minister of the Department of Health (DOH), said Tuesday. Since 2007, Taiwan has spent NT$1 billion (US$33.94 million) on developing the vaccine, which still needs to complete second and third phase clinical trials before it can be used to immunize children against EV-71, Hsiao said. It would take time to develop the vaccine, as enterovirus is not a global disease and large international pharmaceutical companies are therefore not very interested in vaccines against the virus, Hsiao said in response to a legislator's question on the progress of enterovirus vaccines in Taiwan. The vaccine is being developed by Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes. At a press conference convened by the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT's) legislative caucus, secretary-general of the KMT caucus Chao Li-yun called on the Ministry of Education and the DOH to pay attention to enterovirus outbreaks as two students have died of the infection since the start of the new semester. Many experts fear that an EV-71 epidemic will occur soon as the disease has not peaked this year due to prolonged cold weather, according to Shih Wen-yi, deputy director-general of the DOH's Centers for Disease Control. Also contributing to the concern among experts is the fact that many young children have no immunity to the disease because there has not been an outbreak of EV-71 in the past two years, Shih said. However, despite the concerns, Shih said that enterovirus cases have been on the decline since school began in September due to the efforts of health authorities. The officials reminded parents to take their children to hospitals if they develop symptoms of the disease, such as drowsiness, lethargy, weaknesses in the limbs, persistent vomiting and fever. EV-71 infections can result in myocarditism, aseptic meningitis, paralysis and other complications, some of them fatal.