WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION TO OPEN ANIT VIRALS STOCKPILE

MASS POULTRY CULLS ANNOUNCED IN INDONESIA

SEPTEMBER 22, 2005

The World Health Organisation is preparing to open its stockpile of anti-viral drugs to fight a bird flu pandemic. This will see the WHO deploying teams with courses of anti-virals to any area where a pandemic outbreak in humans has been confirmed.

The World Health Organisation claims publicly it has a stockpile of 80,000 treatments courses of the anti-viral oseltamivir (Tamiflu) that it can use to try and head off a pandemic, but WHO has not specified the length of the treatment courses. No anti-viral medication have been 100% proven to stop a bird flu pandemic in humans, as the virus will keep evolving, mutating, through the flow of infections.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto has announced mass culls of poultry in districts believed to be “"highly infected" with avian influenza, after the announcement of an bird flu epidemic in Jakarta yesterday.