Thanks to the reader who sent the link to this story: US shipping Tamiflu stockpile to Asia, health secretary says.
The United States is sending a stockpile of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to Asia as a first defense against a possible flu pandemic, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said Monday.
Leavitt said Washington has shipped treatment courses of Tamiflu to a secure location in an unidentified Asian country.
The drug, produced by the Swiss-based Roche Holding AG, is regarded as the best initial defense against a pandemic resulting from a possible mutation of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus into a strain easily passed between people.
'It is a stockpile that would belong to the United States and we would control its deployment,'' Leavitt said in Geneva, where he was attending the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the U.N. health agency's 192 members.
He declined to say how much of the drug had been sent but said the shipment would arrive later this week.
In North America we have an expression: "Give it the old college try."
In other words, when the other team is leading and the game is almost lost, don't give up. Make one more attempt to score a goal and win the game.
Since last summer, health authorities have considered the chance of smothering a pandemic outbreak in its cradle: Identify a real human-to-human spread. Send in an army of medical experts. Give Tamiflu or some other antiviral to every human being you meet in the neighbourhood. Kill every duck and chicken. Then hope you stamped it out.
Given the ominous outbreaks in Tanah Karo and Surabaya, I can well imagine that the Americans would ship Tamiflu to Indonesia. It would probably do more good there than in Los Angeles or Miami.
The Indonesian government has had big psychological issues with H5N1, so it makes sense that the US would not mention where its Tamiflu is going. But who else would need or want such a gift?
The Vietnamese are setting us all an example of how to be grown-ups in a crisis. The Thais are the same. The Chinese are way ahead of us in coping with avian flu.
Well, maybe this is a gift to Cambodia or Laos. But I expect the Tamiflu will end up in Indonesia. And I hope it's useful.
