Australia's biggest-ever immunization program to combat the deadly A/H1N1 flu virus will begin in less than two weeks, Australian Associated Press reported on Friday.

Free doses of the vaccine will be initially available for all adults from Sept. 30 to protect them from a pandemic that has killed 172 Australians and 3,500 people worldwide.

Doses for children aged 10 and over are expected to be available by mid-October.

The nation's 7,500 general practices will start receiving deliveries of the Panvax vaccine from next week.

The government has bought 21 million doses and state and territory health authorities have already been given four million samples.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved the one-shot protection vaccine, which Melbourne-based pharmaceutical firm CSL had been developing since May.

The 100 million Australian dollars (US$87 million) program to develop an A/H1N1 flu vaccine in Australia has produced a vaccine which its maker indicates will have a 95 percent success rate in adults.

People with diabetes, asthma, obesity, weak immune systems and pregnant women will initially be given priority, along with doctors and nurses.

It is designed to immunize people from developing potentially-fatal lung inflammation and pneumonia if they catch A/H1N1 flu.

So far, 36,000 A/H1N1 flu cases have been confirmed in Australia.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2009)