China ranks the world's largest vaccine producer with an annual
output of more than one billion doses, said the State Food and Drug
Administration (SFDA) on Tuesday.
The annual output of vaccines against hepatitis B,
poliomyelitis, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus can
vaccinate 500 million people alone, the SFDA said in a press
release.
Thirty-three Chinese vaccine manufacturers produce 49 kinds of
vaccines against 26 diseases, the SFDA said.
The Chinese health authority recently announced that it was
working to vaccinate people against 15 serious diseases, up from
seven.
"If this is completed, China's national immunization projects
will cover the most serious diseases in the world," Chinese Health
Minister Chen Zhu said last week.
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2007)