A SENIOR Health Ministry official has welcomed a plan to create a stockpile of millions of doses of an anti-flu drug in Southeast Asia as a precaution against a pandemic in the region.

The move by health ministers at a meeting hosted by the World Health Organisation in Bangkok on August 11 follows growing concern about human cases of bird flu, which has killed 61 people in the region since 2003, including 42 in Vietnam.

A director of the Health Department, Dr Tin Min, said the meeting had called on the World Health Organisation to help arrange the stockpile, which would enable the drugs to be despatched throughout the region within 24 hours of an outbreak.

The plan was proposed by the Thai Health Minister, Dr Suchai Charoenratanakul, said Dr Tin Min, one of three Myanmar officials who accompanied the Deputy Health Minister, Dr Mya Oo, to the meeting.

Dr Tin Min said it was also proposed at the meeting that regional countries should acquire their own supplies of the drug, with some to be contributed to the stockpile.

The meeting also backed moves to form a network for the rapid exchange of information and to cooperate in providing technical support in the event of an outbreak.

Dr Tin Min said funding for the stockpile and its location was yet to be discussed but a decision was likely at a meeting in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, early next month.

The meeting would be attended by countries in the WHO’s Southeast Asian region, which comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, East Timor, North Korea, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Dr Tin Min said Myanmar had begun stockpiling supplies of antiviral drugs and protective equipment since last year.

He said that while no cases of bird flu had been reported in Myanmar, its proximity to countries where outbreaks had occurred left it vulnerable to an outbreak.

Myanmar needed to remain vigilant against the disease, Dr Tin Min said.
The meeting was also attended by the deputy director of the Health Ministry’s Central Health Education Bureau, Dr Khin Maung Lwin, who said it was vital to take measures to prevent the virus from being transmitted from birds to humans to minimise the risk of human to human infections.

Dr Khin Maung Lwin said good farming practices needed to be promoted to prevent the virus from being transmitted to humans.

“Wider educational campaigns should be promoted among poultry farms and those in contact with poultry,” he said.

The Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, has been conducting surveillance against bird flu since January 2004.

The two ministries have formed joint teams which have been trained in infection control and diagnosis confirmation, case management, and health education.

The Health Ministry has also prepared facilities for possible bird flu cases at Waibargi Hospital in Yangon and Kandawnady Hospital in Mandalay since January last year.