US announced plans to fight bird flu

Yesterday (November 1), US President George W. Bush announced a $ 7.1 billion national plan to prepare to deal with bird flu could be worldwide.

Destroy poultry in Romania

The plan focuses on boosting vaccine supplies so that every American citizen can get the vaccine within 6 months when the disease starts.

In his statement, President Bush insisted that the United States needed timely support for domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure there was enough vaccine needed. According to him, the United States is likely to face an epidemic at some point, either due to a strain of bird flu in Asia, or a different strain.

"Early detection of the disease is our first defense ," Bush said. He also called on other countries to admit when pandemics occurred in their countries. 'No country can deliberately ignore this threat,' he said.

According to Bush, the United States must be prepared to detect epidemics anywhere in the world, stockpiling vaccines and being ready to take federal, state and local response measures in the event of a pandemic. America.

The strategy includes:

- 1.2 billion USD for the government to buy enough vaccine against the current bird flu strain to protect 20 million Americans.

- $ 1 billion to store more anti-H5N1 drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza.

- $ 2.8 billion for developing vaccines when new strains of influenza appear, this will last for months.

- USD 251 million for international preparation, including an early warning system to detect people infected with influenza viruses.

- $ 100 million for state preparation, including determination of distribution of reserve drugs directly to patients.

- $ 56 million for testing birds and wild birds .

The government also created a website http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ to provide information to Americans about how to protect themselves and their families.

So far, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since its introduction in late 2003.