Vaccines at hand for humans against bird flu

China is able to mass-produce bird flu vaccines for people, a top Chinese scientist said on Sunday.

Zhong Nanshan, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, made the remark at a Guangdong provincial government news conference.

"Once the H7N9 bird flu virus begins to infect many more people, is found spreading among humans, China will mass-produce the vaccine to help halt the virus' spread," he said. "China now has the ability since researchers have developed a vaccine virus strain of H7N9 avian influenza virus."