Vietnam distributes Tamiflu to all localities

Vietnam's Health Ministry has just decided to allocate 420,000 capsules of bird flu medicine branded Tamiflu to hospitals in all 64 cities and provinces, local media reported Thursday.

The move aims at helping the localities being more active in bird flu prevention, and the hospitals in treatment, newspaper People said.

Earlier, the ministry stipulated that Tamiflu was not freely traded in the market, but used by hospitals for treatment of bird flu patients, to ensure national reserve and avoid drug abuse among the general population.

The ministry supports the research and then production of vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 to be used in humans, said the report.

Vietnam's National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology has sent prototypes of vaccines it develops to the World Health Organization. If the institute gets the organization's approval, it will conduct clinical trials on 20-30 local volunteers.

The institute in Hanoi capital began researching the vaccines on human beings last April. Tests on monkeys showed positive results.

The ministry is instructing southern Ho Chi Minh City and central Hue city to conduct two separate rehearsals on combating potential large bird flu outbreaks among humans this month. Accordingly, healthcare workers are to complete such missions as isolating affected areas and treating a large number of patients.

Source: Xinhua