The FINANCIAL -- According to RIA Novosti, Russia is planning to start testing swine flu vaccines on children on November 2, a deputy health minister said.

According to Russia's Health Ministry, four swine flu vaccines have been so far registered in the country.

A spokesman for the Microgen company involved in producing the vaccines said Russia's health watchdog Roszdravnadzor allowed testing the vaccines on children, adding the tests were set to be conducted at medical research institutions in the cities of St. Petersburg, Smolensk and Perm.

A spokesman for Petrovaks, another company involved in producing swine flu vaccines, earlier said the company was also ready to start testing the vaccines on children.

The production of two vaccines against swine flu has already started in Russia, with at least 35.5 million single doses expected to be produced by the end of the year.

Five deaths from the H1N1 virus have been so far registered in the country. Three fatalities were reported in the east Siberian city of Chita, one in MOSCOW , and another one in the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region. The total number of officially confirmed swine flu cases in the country has reached almost 1,900.

Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, earlier said the swine flu cases began growing considerably in October, traditionally the time for a seasonal flu outbreak. The country plans to start a swine flu vaccination program in December.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 5,700 people have died from swine flu worldwide, and the total number of officially confirmed cases has exceeded 440,000, as of October 25.

Large-scale immunization campaigns aimed at fighting swine flu are underway in several countries, including the United States and Japan.

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