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Officials ponder flu defenses

2005-10-17

2005-10-17 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Su Chueh-yu

A mother and kid check out pigeons at CKS Memorial Hall yesterday as the world grapples with avian flu threat.
A mother and kid check out pigeons at CKS Memorial Hall yesterday as the world grapples with avian flu threat. /RICK YI, TAIWAN NEWS
As the world prepares itself to battle an avian flu epidemic, Taiwan is grappling with a lack of drugs and vaccines and working hard to find solutions to the shortages.

While considering different approaches to stockpiling anti-influenza medicines, the Center for Disease Control yesterday advised local residents on how to approach the threatening virus.

CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ting stressed people should observe good hygienic practices and not try to hoard up on Tamiflu, the one known treatment for the H5N1 strain of avian flu that has already killed 60 people throughout Southeast Asia and is now threatening Europe.

"It takes more than medicine to prevent a disease from spreading," said Lin. "The most important thing for citizens is to develop good hygienic knowledge. It would prove more effective than just submissively waiting for medication to be developed."

The CDC currently has enough Tamiflu dosages for 160,000 people, Lin said, far short of the amount needed to treat 5 million people the department estimates it needs to fight an outbreak.

The existing Tamiflu, therefore, should be reserved for people actually exposed to infection, Lin said.

"Most people may not know that the drug only prevails during the first forty-eight hours of the illness," Lin said, stressing it does not function as a vaccine.

While the manufacturer of Tamiflu - Swiss-based Roche - has promised to increase its shipments of the drug to Taiwan to increase stocks fivefold by the middle of next year, it remains reluctant to license the drug for local production.

The government would have to resolve the patent issue before the National Health Research Institute, which claims to have the technology to make Tamiflu, can help local drug manufacturers mass produce the drug.

CDC officials do not deny Director Kuo Shu-sung's statement made last week that should the disease break out, the center may consider allowing local manufacturers to produce the drug, and later offer compensation to Roche if it invoked "compulsory licensing."

"We will revise our stockpiling policy as we see fit, " the CDC's Lin said.

All of this means that other preventive efforts need to be undertaken.

The CDC deputy director-general strongly urged people to stay away from bird flu affected areas, such as Southeast Asia. But if traveling to those countries is inevitable, people should avoid coming in contact with birds and their droppings, Lin said.

The CDC on October 10 also began requiring passengers returning from those areas to have their temperatures taken at the airport and fill out quarantine forms.

For those who do not plan to travel abroad, Lin's suggestion was to avoid household and free-range birds, or purchasing fowl that may have been smuggled or whose origin was unknown.

Other common prevention methods include washing your hands frequently and avoiding the consumption of raw poultry.

People should also be on alert for flu-like symptoms such as fever, coughing and sore throat in their surroundings, Lin said. There are currently 470 local health bureaus where people can seek medical assistance and twenty-three licensed hospitals countrywide that would take in patients, he added.

Meanwhile, the Chang Gung Memorial Hospitals in Linkou, Kaohsiung, and Chiayi have also initiated epidemic control systems in order to prepare for the full brunt of the disease.

In addition, The Council of Agriculture, under orders issued by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has scheduled a simulation exercise for related governmental departments for this Wednesday.

The Environmental Protection Administration, the Coast Guard Administration, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Department of Health will be invited to simulate the extermination of contaminated poultry, follow-up sanitation procedures, and self-health management.

Another way of fighting a bird flu epidemic is to vaccinate the population. Taiwan needs 4 million flu vaccines every year. Last month, Europe's largest drug manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, told Taiwan that it had signed a contract with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to invest US$100 million in producing avian flu vaccine.

The company's Taiwan branch said the vaccine that Sanofi-Aventis is aiming to produce has been tested on 400 people for preventing H5N1 infection, with good results.

As of the end of September, only two drug makers in the world had announced a successful testing of anti-avian flu vaccine. But neither of them have a large-scale human testing report, and even if their R&D proves effective, Taiwan would have to vie with a host of other countries waiting to buy the new product.