Swine flu cases to rise

The Chinese mainland is expected to face more serious and even fatal H1N1 infections as the weather cools, a Health Ministry spokesman says.

"China's situation is still rather grim," spokesman Deng Haihua said on Saturday. His words came just days after the mainland reported its first death from the disease. An 18-year-old woman from Maizhokunggar county, in Tibet's Lhasa city, died on Oct 4.

As of Friday, a total of 22,830 cases of swine flu had been reported on the mainland, with more than 17,000 of them reported in September alone. China became the first country to issue a production license for vaccines against the flu last month.

But all of the vaccines produced in the country so far have been stocked by the State and are not on the market, Deng says.

More than 300,000 people have been vaccinated, with 150 of them showing adverse reactions, including local swelling and pain, fever, vomiting and fatigue, Deng says. "Most of the adverse drug reactions reported were mild," he explains. "Generally speaking, our inoculations have been successful."

As of Friday, 17.65 million doses of the vaccine had been approved for release in 108 batches, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) says. The administration has issued vaccine production licenses to eight domestic firms, SFDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangying says.

The SFDA gave the go-ahead for mass inoculations on Sept 8 after it approved a vaccine produced by domestic pharmaceutical company Sinovac on Sept 3.