The World Health Organization will provide Vietnam 1.2 million doses of swine-flu vaccines but procedures to import the vaccines have not been completed, the National Steering Committee for A/H1N1 Prevention said November 18.

A student with swine flu being treated at Pham Ngoc Thach hospital in HCMC. WHO has agreed to provide Vietnam 1.2 million doses of vaccine against the disease (Photo: SGGP)

Dr Duong Quoc Cuong, head of the Medicine Management Department, said the Ministry of Health does not know the name of the vaccine that WHO would provide or who manufactures it but plans to buy a further 500,000 doses for high-risk groups after testing them.

However, Vietnam is familiar with four out of the five global A/H1N1 vaccine producers licensed by WHO.

The Preventive Health and Environment Department said 66 cases of swine flu were recorded in the country in the last week, with a 23-year-old woman from the southern province of Binh Phuoc succumbing to the disease.

The total tally in Vietnam is 10,866 infections and 42 deaths.