A group of Vietnamese researchers have finalized a process to produce a new vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu virus and expect to launch their product on the market late this year.

>> Efforts stepped up to curb bird flu >> VN applies 24/7 check at entry points to prevent bird flu The 100-percent made-in-Vietnam vaccine is the result of research that has been conducted over the past ten years by Vietnamese scientists at the Company for Vaccines and Biological Production No. 1 and the Central Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute. The vaccine has been prepared by using samples of the H5N1 virus taken from the first people who contracted the virus in Vietnam, researchers said. After being made, the vaccine has been tested successfully on both animals and humans, they said. H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza (or "bird flu"). Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally, but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60 percent, according to the World Health Organization. The H5N1 bird flu has slowed down in Vietnam recently after it spread to dozens of provinces and cities, killing tens of thousands of poultry and two people during the first quarter of this year, as reported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. One of the victims was a 52-year-old man of southern Binh Phuoc Province and the other was a 60-year-old woman of Dong Thap Province, also from the southern region, the ministry said, adding that both victims had been in recent contact with poultry and a lot of poultry had died in areas near their residences. In order to prevent outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu in humans, the ministry’s Preventive Health Department advised that everyone should avoid consuming poultry that was diseased or died from unknown causes. Everyone should eat thoroughly cooked food, drink boiled water, and wash their hands with soap before meals, the department said.