WP,pg1: Run on Drug for Avian Flu (Tamiflu) Has Physicians Worried

[DeepModem Mom]

Run on Drug for Avian Flu Has Physicians Worried
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 22, 2005; Page A01


What fallout shelters were to worries about the Bomb, and duct tape and plastic sheeting were to fears of terrorism after Sept. 11, Tamiflu is starting to be for the specter of pandemic influenza.

Across the country, people appear to be building home stockpiles of the prescription antiviral medicine, according to reports by drugstores, pharmaceutical benefit managers and physicians.

The run on Tamiflu was apparently spurred by government warnings, here and abroad, that chances for a worldwide flu epidemic are rising, and by news that Southeast Asia's H5N1 bird flu -- the leading candidate for a pandemic -- is moving westward.

For more than a year, demand for the drug, known generically as oseltamivir, has been rising as more than three dozen countries began to lay in millions of doses for national stockpiles. Retail demand, however, took a sharp upturn last month. A five-day course of two pills a day costs $80 to $90.

The trend worries many physicians and public health experts because widespread home stockpiling could undermine international efforts to fight a flu pandemic. Some doctors are refusing their patients' requests except in special circumstances....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/21/AR2005102102141.html

[MADem]

1. Remember, after the anthrax business, the run on CIPRO???

Ask yourself, WHO BENEFITS? Big Pharma, that's who.

Terra, terra, terra!!!
http://www.normansaunders.com/PprbkBks/57-04,Terror.jpg

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2. Thank you again DMM

Good article. We've already talked about doing this in my household but aren't sure it makes sense.

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3. Avian Flu virus also found in Canadian pigeons

although not the dangerous N1 strain. See:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051021/australia_birdimportban_reax_20051021/20051021?hub=TopStories

See ABC News Australia for the other side of the story. Don't have link handy but they also have a video posted on their website explaining why they shut down bird imports from Canada.