Tamiflu Supply Affected By Budget Problems

The overall master plan for a bird flu crisis in America has already hit a stumbling block with no cases yet reported. The New Jersey plan to stockpile the Tamiflu drug has run into difficulties due to the state budget crisis. At present the Department of Health has reserved over 900,000 courses of the drug Tamiflu for New Jersey from the national stockpile, however New Jersey is unable to order and pay for the Tamiflu unless it has a budget organised.

All United States individual states have permission to buy a certain amount of Tamiflu from the central government in a subsidised system that should ensure that the drug is efficiently distributed all over America. New Jersey has been allocated exactly 907,000 courses and could order more if they really needed it, but at present without a state budget plan in place they have their hands tied and are unable to order it.

The State of New Jersey has only 18,500 courses of Tamiflu at present which is clearly not enough should any large scale pandemic strike. Ukmedix has already reported on the fact that the United States has signed a contract with the the makers of Tamiflu namely Roche for a $149 million supply of the bird flu drug. Overall the US government is aiming to stockpile enough Tamiflu for 25% of the US population.

Tamiflu in testing has been shown to be able to lessen the effects of bird flu if used within 2 days of the bird flu symptoms beginning and if taken during an outbreak or when in close contact with people who have flu the Tamiflu can reduce the chances of getting ill by around 90%.