BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China announced here Monday that its human-use bird flu vaccine had proved "safe" and "effective" during the second phase of clinical tests.

    The vaccine was jointly developed by the Beijing-based vaccine producer Sinovac Biotech, the first in the world to develop SARS vaccine, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The program was also under support of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health.

    Zhang Jiansan, vice-general manager of the Sinovac Biotech, said the second phase of clinical tests was carried out from this September to November after applying for human clinical trials for the vaccine with the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration. A total of 402 people aged from 18 to 60 years took the test.

    Test results showed that the major index of the vaccine reached international standards and performed well in the human body. None of the test takers were found to have a serious negative reaction, which proved that the vaccine was safe.

    Zhang said test takers of different ages were given different dosage of vaccine, and the result was also positive. "It means the vaccine could give multiple choices of treatment for flu infected people."

    "We have been able to control the dosage and immunity procedure of the vaccine during the second phase of clinical tests, which also provided for us scientific and effective methods to combat highly infective influenza," Zhang said.

    Observers said China had completed its technological preparation to combat influenza with the success of human-use bird flu vaccine research and clinical tests.

    "China is also capable of producing human-use bird flu vaccine in appropriate quantity," Zhang stressed.

    The first human infection case of bird flu was reported in China's Hong Kong in 1997 and immediately became a world epidemic disease. Up to now, the world has seen 304 human infection cases of bird flu, among which 209 died.

    The World Health Organization estimated that a maximum of 2.3 million people in developed countries may go into hospital and 280,000 may die once the influenza outbreak comes. The situation in developing countries may be even worse.

    Founded in 2001, Sinovac, known in China as Beijing Kexing Bioproducts Limited Company, focuses on manufacturing and marketing human-use vaccines and related products for infectious diseases such as Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B, influenza and SARS.

    The company was designated to cooperate with the state disease control and prevention center to carry out the research and development for human-use bird flu vaccine, to be used for preventing the disease among humans, since the epidemic among birds was first uncovered in March 2004.