Argentine President Cristina Fernandez announced on Friday that Argentina would start to produce A/H1N1 vaccines after about 600 people have died of this disease in the country.

The initiative "will demand the work of 250 scientists and an important investment" of about US$20 million, Fernandez said during an inauguration of an international conference in Buenos Aires.

She called the production of the A/H1N1 vaccines a "national interest".

According to the latest report from the Argentine health departments, A/H1N1 influenza has infected more than 1.2 million people and caused about 600 deaths in Argentina since the first case was reported in May, 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2009)