Fed: Aust to stockpile flu medicine for 28pct of population

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2005
Fed: Aust to stockpile flu medicine for 28pct of population

SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - Australia's stockpile of bird flu antiviral medicine will be boosted
to cover 28 per cent of the population under a federal government plan to prepare for
a pandemic.

Health Minister Tony Abbott today announced a further $184.8 million over five years
would be given to boost the nation's capacity to respond to a bird flu pandemic.

It includes an $80 million purchase of antivirals and antibiotics, including powdered
Tamiflu, for the national medical stock pile.

Mr Abbott said it would bring supplies to the equivalent of 28 per cent of the population,
instead of the current 19 per cent.

The package also includes the creation of an office of health protection, within the
Health Department, that will lead Australia's health preparedness for a possible pandemic.

"I want to stress that while the threat of a pandemic is real, it remains a possibility,
not even a probability in the next few years, let alone a certainty," Mr Abbott told reporters.

"But if a pandemic of 1918/19 seriousness did emerge in our country, it would be a
public health disaster of unprecedented proportions and no-one who lived in this era would
forget it."

Also included in the package is the purchase of additional masks and gloves for the
national medical stockpile and funds for a simulation exercise in October next year which
will test health and border preparedness.

AAP kjd/sw/jt/sd

KEYWORD: FLU AUST

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