At the inauguration of the modernized M. S. Ramaiah Medical Teaching Hospital, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad told press reporters on Friday that the H1N1 – swine flu - vaccine has been developed, and will be launched in India by April first week.

Azad said that January 2010 onwards, a two-month trial of the vaccine will commence, during which the vaccine will be administered to nearly 200 people. Thereafter, upon the public availability of the vaccine, it will be made available in all hospitals.

Elaborating about the two-month trial period of the vaccine, Azad said that the test of the vaccine for human application would have to be undertaken in all regions of the country due to the marked variations in climatic conditions.

Noting that almost 210 countries round the world had been hit, in varying degrees, by the swine flu epidemic, the Minister said that, in some of the affected countries where the H1N1 vaccine had been developed in haste, the treatment failed to cure the patients of swine flu.

Azad further said that, as of now, his Ministry had a stock of 40 million capsules, out of which it has distributed 20 million to all States. In addition, Azad apprised the media that his Ministry was guiding the worst-hit States to hold public briefings for creating awareness about swine flu and the requisite preventive measures to combat the disease.