After three people died of H1N1 flu in Ho Chi Minh City in the first months of this year, a 30-year-old man is now being treated in a serious condition.  The Tropical Disease Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City is treating a patient, from Binh Thanh District, who has contracted the H1N1 flu virus and is now in fatal condition, doctors said. So far this year, many people have infected with the deadly virus, and three of them have died, local health authorities reported.    The latest patient, whose name has not been announced, was first hospitalized at Nhan Dan Gia Dinh Hospital on June 23 after experiencing a high fever and difficulty breathing. Tests later confirmed he had contracted the virus, and that he was also suffering from hepatitis C, doctors said. Three days later, the patient was transferred to the Tropical Disease Hospital with respiratory failure and serious pneumonia. Despite intensive treatment and care, the patient’s health is in very serious condition and he is being put on a respirator, doctors said. In related news, the Health Ministry’s Institute for Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, under the Health Ministry, is stepping up preparations to produce a vaccine against H1N1 in late 2014 or early 2015. The institute conducted the first trial of its vaccine, A/H1N1/09, on 48 healthy people in Ben Luc District, southern Long An province from April to November 2012 to assess the vaccine’s effect and its safety.   If everything continues going smoothly, the last trial will be carried out on 1,000 people before the vaccine can be produced in mass quantity, Duong Huu Thai, deputy head of the institute, said.

The trial will last for six months, during which every aspect of the vaccine will be examined and assessed, he added. The price of the H1N1 vaccine produced by the institute will be equal to only one-third that of the imported version, Thai said.