Vietnam May Recyle Expired Tamiflu

Some batches of the world’s Tamiflu are now completely redundant...

A lot of people are unaware that the bird flu drug Tamiflu will expire after few years. This is causing problems in a lot of Far Eastern countries that were the first to order large stocks of the bird flu medicine from the drug company Roche. In fact some batches of the world’s Tamiflu are now completely redundant and these poor countries that paid literally millions of pounds for the medication are faced with having to throw it all away unused.

In Vietnam the Academy of Science and Technology is looking at ways to recycle the Tamiflu that has expired in the hope that they will not therefore have to buy new Tamiflu at great expense. The government of Vietnam to would then be able to use the funds to tackle other health problems facing the country. Vietnam is also looking at ways of producing its own bird flu vaccines be so that they do not have to be reliant on western countries for medication.

In a sense it all depends on how you look at it because the fact that the Vietnamese government has not used the Tamiflu is a wonderful thing as it shows that no bird flu pandemic has broken out. Would they for example be happier if they had put all their Tamiflu stocks to good use?

At Ukmedix News we feel that it is pretty unlikely that the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology will be able to recycle the expired Tamiflu but nevertheless it is still worth trying. Expired Tamiflu might also not be completely useless but just a little bit less effective then fresh batches and so it should be kept for emergency situations just in case.

Tamiflu is known to be the most effective medication for treating a person suffering from the H5N1 bird flu virus. This is confirmed by the World Health Organisation.