Tamiflu for local medicine

The Ministry of Health has decided to allocate more than 420,000 Tamiflu tablets to the reserves of 64 provinces, affiliated agencies and line ministries. Deputy Minister Trinh Quan Huan said that each unit will have about 3,000-10,000 members.

More than 400,000 of these pills are among the 600,000 Tamiflu tablets that Taiwan funded a few months ago. The rest will be reserved for coordination when necessary.

In order to ensure that the above drugs were used for the right purpose, the Ministry of Health has issued a document asking health departments, hospitals not to sell Tamiflu to the market, even at a hospital pharmacy, as this is number of drugs in the national reserve plan and service of epidemic prevention. Tamiflu is only used for people infected with influenza A / H5N1 with close monitoring by doctors. For more stringent control, the Ministry of Health will study to find some way in granting registration numbers to clearly distinguish Tamiflu from the epidemic prevention plan and Tamiflu that companies import for free sale. .

About H5N1 vaccine, Mr. Trinh Quan Huan said, the Ministry of Health is waiting for the World Health Organization to send the results of testing the vaccine samples to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to produce before testing on humans. These samples will be tested for antigen to see if they are capable of causing immunity in humans. Mr. Huan said, until now, it is impossible to say when this product will be mass produced. This question can only be answered when human testing is completed. In principle, when a new vaccine is produced, the most important factor is clinical trials. Watching how long after the injection the body produces enough antibody to prevent disease, and how long this effect lasts, may be months, or years. In addition, scientists must determine the shelf life of the composition to include in the instructions for use.

Deputy Minister commented, recently, although all 3 regions have received cases of acute respiratory infections, the main reason is due to flu or common pneumonia, mostly cured. Avian influenza has also eased, currently only 14 provinces have outbreaks.

According to the Treatment Department, among recent hospitalized patients with respiratory infections, a veterinarian who used to directly destroy poultry. This person was taken to the HCM City Tropical Diseases Hospital on 6 December with symptoms of pneumonia. There are currently no test results of this patient.