WHO puts Tamiflu maker on bird flu alert

[cal04]

The World Health Organization put the maker of the global stockpile of the anti-bird flu drug Tamiflu on alert for the first time after human-to-human transmission was suspected in Indonesia, officials said Saturday. The organization said that a precautionary 9,500 treatment doses from a separate WHO reserve, along with protective gear, were flown into Indonesia on Friday, but the shipment was not expected to be followed by movement of the global stockpile.

"We have no intention of shipping that stockpile," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said. An Indonesian health official, meanwhile, said tests had confirmed five more cases of bird flu, three of them fatal. One of those cases was of a 32-year-old man who on Monday became the last fatality in a human cluster in Kubu Simbelang, a village of about 1,500 people in North Sumatra. No health workers could be seen Saturday in the village, where dozens of chickens and geese ran among houses and through backyards framed by high mountains and surrounded by rich fields of chilis, oranges and limes.

The family infected by the virus lived in three houses near the church in the Christian village. The WHO in Jakarta received word from the Indonesian Health Ministry about the cluster on Monday. The Geneva-based organization put Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG on alert hours later, said Jules Pieters, director of WHO's rapid response and containment group. Roche spokesman Baschi Duerr said the stockpile, which consists of 3 million treatment courses kept in Europe and the United States, is ready to be shipped at any time to any place.

"We are in very close contact with WHO, even today, and our readiness is geared to be able to deliver," Duerr said. "We are ready to fly it wherever and whenever it's needed." Pieters stressed the alert was part of standard operating procedure when WHO has "reasonable doubt" about a situation that could involve human-to-human transmission. He said Roche would remain on alert for approximately the next two weeks, or twice the incubation period of the last reported case.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060527/ap_on_he_me/indonesia_bird_flu

[rosesaylavee]

1. And from what I understand, Tamiflu doesn't help

bird flu - or there is no proof of it. If there is proof now, does anyone have a link?

[SaveElmer]

3. It is thought...

Early administration of Tamiflu in Turkey kept the mortality rate there down to about 20%.

[WhiteTara]

2. Rummy just made some more money

and we that taxpayers got another jab up the butts, worthless medicine for a handsome price. the old something for nothing...or Rummy's free lunch.