Home > Home And Family > Health

Flu Threat - Latest around the World

by jenifer D'souza

Just when we thought that we had seen the last of SARS scare, which killed around 800 people, come the news of a new much more dangerous and contagious pandemic - Avian Flu. What started as a local problem in East Asia and South East Asia, especially China and Vietnam has rapidly spread westwards towards Russia and is now on the doorstep of Europe -Turkey. As per the latest news, the 21st person suffering from bird flu has been detected there. Bird flu has already killed more than 10 people in Vietnam and most shockingly has killed 4 people in Turkey in the last one month . What is worrying is unreported outbreaks of the diease in poultry in the nearby countries and the continuous advance westward.

Avian flu is caused by the H5N1 virus strain. It has already killed 80 people since 2003. Until now, the bird flu only infected those humans, who had some contact with birds either wild or domesticated. These animals would have got the flu from other birds. But, now scientists suspect that human to human transmission is a distinct possibility. They have a reason- The unique ability of viruses to mutate quickly. There is always a chance that it will mutate within the infected humans and unleash a pandemic never seen in history. The last major pandemic - The Spanish Flu of 1918-19 killed approximately 40 million people. The world's population has increased more than four times since then.

It is only to prevent this nightmare scenario that goverments are working overtime to ensure that all suspect birds are killed. More than 10 million poultry have been killed and many more have been disinfected throughout Asia and Europe.

Goverments are also stocking medicines that that treat the infection. There are only two drugs that can deal with the current virus. One is Tamiflu from Roche AG and the second is Relenza from GlaxoSmithline Beecham.

Tamiflu is a very effective pill that has clearly proved it's efficacy in preventing and treating bird flu. When given to infected persons in the very first days of the outbreak , it reduces the intensity of the infection. Thus making them less likely to infect others and might slow down the epidemic.

When taken by healthy people Tamiflu significantly reduces the chance of catching the flu. It has to be taken every day for 42 days, until the wave of the disease passes away. But not even a hugh stock-pile will allow that, given the huge populations at risk. Some experts says it would be better to give it to people at the highest risk of succumbing to the infection - the elderly and children.

Relenza on the other hand requires an inhaler and is rarely used. It is not considered suitable for stockpiling.
However both Tamiflu and Relenza are more expensive than an older and more widely available category of flu drugs called M2 inhibitors. These generic drugs rimantadine and amantadine. However, they do not seem to be that effective in dealing with the current H5N1 virus strain.

Goverments are getting desperate as the flu travels further. Singapore today ordered 50,000 courses of GlaxoSmithline Beecham's Relenza to supplement its stockpile of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to fight bird flu, the Ministry of Health, said today(January 18th 2006). Japan has stocked up enough Tamiflu to treat 20 million people, but it has a population of more than 127 million.

Thailand has approved a three-year, $104 million plan to deal with the disease with education programmes, more laboratories, drugs and surgical masks. It plans to double its stocks of Tamiflu, although that will only be enough for just over 5 percent of its 7 million population.

Experts at an international bird flu conference attended by more than 90 countries and 20 international organisations in Beijing are warning that a human mutation of the virus will eventually come. As a result they're saying there's no time to lose in setting up a global fighting fund.

The World Bank is hoping to raise more than $1.5 billion at this conference. The money will be used to deal with outbreaks over the next three years, as well as assisting research.

According to the latest news, Swiss drugs maker Roche had agreed to donate 20 million doses of its anti-bird flu drug Tamiflu, enough to treat two million people. That's in addition to the 30 million doses it pledged last year.

The European Union has also pledged 100 million Euros to fight bird flu.

To meet the worldwide shortage of the drug Roche AG., recently agreed to even allow generic drug makers to make Tamiflu. Indian companies like Ranbaxy, Cipla, etc have already prepared deneric versions. There were even unconfirmed reports of exports to a third country.WHO estimates that demand will outstrip supply even at the current high rate of production .

Our only hope lies in wiping out Avian flu at the bird level and ensuring adequate drug supplies in the right place at the right time. All countries need to work together on this, In the words of the Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Qiao Zonghuai "No country can stay safe by looking the other way."

More articles >>