Bird Flu Drug Doses on Hand in SC

By KERR, Rob

Demand for anti bird flu drug Tamiflu is growing so fast the company which supplies it can’t keep up with orders.

New Zealanders, particularly travellers and those going on business to South- east Asia, are seeking their own supplies of the drug amid public fears of a global flu pandemic increase. But in South Canterbury there are probably a few hundred doses of the drug held by chemists, believes Timaru pharmacist Brent Roberts.

Mr Roberts hasn’t lost sleep over a possible pandemic and hopes it is all “a storm in a teacup”.

But that doesn’t stop him holding Tamiflu for his staff.

As frontline health workers they are most at risk if the disease mutates to spread from human to human.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts 70 per cent of primary health care workers will die if a pandemic erupts.

However, Mr Roberts said the WHO had been wrong before.

“Just look at Sars.”

He holds about 100 doses and has noticed prescriptions are up, mainly going to those travelling to Southeast Asia.

Some Timaru chemists have run out of Tamiflu, but Mr Roberts said they would only have needed to hold small stocks of the drug in the past.

So far bird flu has infected about 112 people and caused 57 deaths in Asia since the end of 2003.

At the moment Tamiflu is seen as the best way of preventing the spread of the pandemic — in conjunction with measures such as vigilant personal hygiene and avoiding public places.

Yesterday, Roche Products (NZ) Ltd sales and marketing director Stuart Knight said within two days of last week’s shipment arriving the company had distributed all its supplies to wholesalers. The next planned delivery was in the first week of October.

Mr Knight said the company had seen a “significant and sustained” increase in demand this year, initially because of the shortage of this winter’s influenza vaccine, but more recently because of concerns about a flu pandemic. Media coverage of a pandemic had contributed to that.

If demand continued, people wanting Tamiflu could expect to wait up to three months for a prescription to be filled.

Mr Knight said Roche’s obligation to fulfil the Government order was not affected by any changes in public demand.

It seems in larger centres the demand is greater.

Auckalnd Pharmacy Radius Care has sold about 28 packets of Tamiflu in the last fortnight compared to one packet for the whole of last year. Travel Doctor managing director Wendy Penno said up to 50 people were on a Tamiflu waiting list.

A number of companies had sought the drug for staff travelling overseas.

Dr Daniel Wu, of College Hill Doctors in Central Auckland had prescribed Tamiflu for a handful of patients going overseas and said there appeared to be a degree of public panic.

While people at the frontline, such as doctors, nurses and those working in customs needed to make sure they had access to Tamiflu he did not believe the general public needed to “fork out all that money”.

“There are other more important things like basic hygiene and avoiding public places. All those things are far more important than having a packet of Tamiflu,” he said.

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