Funds requested to double Tamiflu stockpile
In order to double the existing 14.6 million-dose stockpile of the influenza drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the Department of Health has applied for an additional £150 million from the Treasury, officials confirmed this week.
The aim is to hold in readiness enough doses to treat at least half the
UK population in the event of a pandemic and allow the drug to be given
to every person in an infected household. A 2005 contingency plan assumed
a pandemic infection rate of up to 20 per cent, but a study last year
by Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, recommended standby supplies
of at least 30 million doses to provide preventive therapy.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is also considering ordering enough
vaccines against H5N1 bird flu to cover the entire British population.
But the vaccines available remain experimental and have a shelf life
of only three years. DoH officials have argued that a bird flu pandemic
is unlikely within that timescale and the Treasury could veto future
spending if stockpiles are not used. Whitehall sources said that a submission
to fund up to 20 million doses is more likely to succeed.
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