The American State of Wisconsin has sent formal notification to the US federal government for its Tamiflu and Relenza stores so that it can have enough of the medicine to treat almost 1.4 million people should a bird flu pandemic break out in Wisconsin. The United States government after a slow start has now got a fully functioning master plan for the distribution of bird flu anti viral drugs as well as many other preventative measures.

Part of the master plan is that the federal government will subsidise the purchase of the flu anti virals and thus make sure that each individual State has enough to treat a good proportion of its citizens. The State of Wisconsin is however requesting more financial aid to pay for its bird flu drugs. Wisconsin is aiming to get its hands on enough Tamiflu and Relenza so that about 25% of the state's population would be covered and this is also the quantity that is recommended by the Centre for Disease Control as well as World Health Organisation. The idea is that 25% of the State of Wisconsin will have enough Tamiflu or Relenza for either a 5 day treatment program or a 10 day preventive supply.

The Federal Government of the United States has however only enough Tamiflu and Relenza for approximately 15% of the total population (around 44 million people). Tamiflu and Relenza are both considered to be effective in battling the bird flu virus and also in reducing the symptoms of the H5N1 virus. At present Roche, the company that makes Tamiflu is struggling to keep up with demand and is desperately doing outsourcing deals to boost the supply of the drug. Relenza is made by GSK and while it is said to be as effective as Tamiflu, it has a more complicated delivery method being an inhaler and has been in very short supply also.

The use of anti viral bird flu medicine will not be enought to stop a world wide pandemic of the virus should it fully mutate into an airborne human to human virus and other preventative measures are advised by the World Health Organisation such as regular washing of hands and working from home to minimise contact with other infected people.