Philippines To Donate Tamiflu

The Ministry of Health in the Philippines will be making a big donation of Tamiflu to Indonesia and Cambodia where it is more likely to be needed after realising that the Tamiflu they have in stock is unlikely to be administered in the nation and it would better serve another country where there have been human outbreaks of bird flu.

The Tamiflu that the Philippines has is due to expire in November 2007 and was given to them by Unilab a couple of years ago and a Health Minister said that as there were no cases of human bird flu in the Philippines it was sitting there and just gathering dust when it could be put to beneficial use somewhere else.

The Health Minister did say however to reassure people that if any cases of bird flu were reported in the Philippines the stock of Tamiflu would immediately be replenished to safeguard the population. The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries where bird flu has not struck.

At present a large bird flu conference is being held in the Philippines with representatives from the World Health organization as well as other health bodies and organisations.

According to the WHO 55 people have died from bird flu in Indonesia from the H5N1 virus and in Vietnam there have been 42 deaths. This list of other nations that have suffered from human cases of the H5N1 bird flu virus include Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Iraq, Djibouti, Egypt, Thailand and Turkey.

Tamiflu is said to be vital as the first bastion of defence in the event of a bird flu attack among humans. Tamiflu is not 100% effective but if given early on to a person suffering from the H5N1 strain of the virus it will greatly improve their chances of becoming well and making a full recovery.