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| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
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No drugs now if avian flu breaks out by Jayantha Sri Nissanka Sri Lanka does not have a single dose of influenza medicine to use in the event of an Avian Influenza (H5N1) pandemic outbreak in the country. Though all Asian countries have given top most priority to take precautionary methods to combat possible outbreak, certain officials in relevant institutions are still arguing that Sri Lankans do not have to fear as migratory birds are not coming to Sri Lanka from affected countries. But the virus first broke out in December 2003 in Republic of Korea in the recent past and slowly spread in nine Asian countries. The Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry only last week took a decision to import Influenza capsules. Director B. V. S. H. Beneragama had directed the local supplier to import 50,000 capsules for 5,000 patients. But he fears whether the supplier can strike a deal with the only manufacturer of the drug Roche Pharmaceutical in Switzerland due to the soaring demand worldwide for the drug. However he plans to obtain World Health Organisation (WHO) assistance too to obtain the medicine from the WHO limited stockpiling. The WHO claims in one of their reports "in the event of a pandemic, even if all producers switch to the production of a pandemic influenza vaccine, production would be hardly sufficient to cover 10% of the world population". |
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