MACAO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Around 200,000 doses of A/H1N1 flu vaccines will be shipped to Macao later this month, with which the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government will start inoculating local people, the SAR's Health Bureau announced on Wednesday.

    The 200,000 doses were the first batch of such vaccines purchased by the SAR government, the other 500,000 doses were scheduled to be delivered to Macao in January next year, according to the Health Bureau.

    Local medical staff and high-risk group, including children, old people and patients with chronic illness, will be firstly inoculated with these vaccines.

    The use of the vaccine, produced by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, has been approved by relevant EU authorities, and the vaccine's inoculation in Macao is voluntary, said Lei ChinIon, director of the Health Bureau.

    Health authorities in the United States, Australia, and some other countries have already begun inoculating residents with A/H1N1 vaccines. The Bureau earlier said that it will closely follow the situation in these countries, so as to assess the incidence rate of adverse pharmacological effects of these vaccines.

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