North: Drug stockpiled in bird flu defence plan
The North is building up its defences against a feared avian flu outbreak among humans, it was confirmed today.
The Department of Health is stockpiling the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which Principle Medical Officer, Dr Liz Mitchell said would “buy us some time” while a vaccine was developed against the specific strain of flu which emerges.
Only enough Tamiflu to treat a quarter of the population is being bought “because it is estimated that only about 25% of the population would actually be affected,” she said.
The first batch of the drug was delivered to the North for stockpiling in September. “This will continue with deliveries every month until next September,” said Dr Mitchell.
While there is concern among veterinarians about recent confirmation of avian flu having reached farmed birds in Turkey, doctors are looking further afield.
“Our concern would be the situation in South East Asia where there has been a spread from birds to humans but not from humans to humans.
“The major concern is that if there is a human influenza outbreak at the same time as the bird variant, they could combine and result in a worldwide pandemic,” added Dr Mitchell.
Everyone said it was a case of when, rather than if, there was a spread of a human form of the avian flu, Dr Mitchell said, but urged the public not to panic.
“Our plans are in place. We have a a pandemic flu plan which is part of the UK plan,” she said.
The plan will be updated next week when the North's health chiefs attend a meeting of EU heads to co-ordinate a Europe-wide campaign against the flu.
Dr Mitchell said it was hoped there would be good warning of the start of a human pandemic which would enable the development of a vaccine against the specific strain before it reached the North.
“If the outbreak started in South East Asia and it’s spread was shut down as much as possible, that would buy us some months,” she said.
