China-made vaccine ready to help world's children

Chinese-made vaccines for Japanese encephalitis are expected to be exported by early next year to needy Southeast Asian countries, protecting children there from the lethal virus.

"So far, we've received an application for JE vaccine support from Laos, and we are still open to applications from other ... eligible countries also burdened by the disease," Seth Berkley, CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a public/private global health partnership, told China Daily during a visit to the country that concluded on Thursday.

If everything goes smoothly, "children in applicant countries will get the shots in the first quarter of 2015", he said.