AlaskaNews wire on stockpiling for pandemic flu

Alaska puts in early order for bird flu medicines

By MARY PEMBERTON, Associated Press Writer

Published: July 6, 2006
Last Modified: July 6, 2006 at 05:00 PM

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska is taking an aggressive stance against a possible outbreak of deadly human bird flu by placing its order early for medicines intended to slow the spread of a pandemic.

State officials will eventually order enough antiviral doses to cover about a fourth of Alaska residents. Officials are being bold since the state is a crossroads for migratory birds, which could be carrying the virus here from other parts of the world.

Currently, there is no vaccine to protect humans from H5N1 avian influenza - the deadly form of bird flu. If there is an outbreak, the government is relying on antivirals such as Tamiflu and Relenza to help slow its spread.

The virus, which commonly affects birds but has gone from birds to humans in a number of countries, has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it began showing up in Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. While it is now difficult for humans to catch, the fear is that bird flu could mutate into a form that could pass easily from human to human, sparking a human pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is allocating antivirals - Tamiflu and Relenza, a flu drug that can be inhaled - based on each state's population.

The federal government is stockpiling enough antivirals this year to treat 20 million people. It plans to order another 24 million treatment courses for fiscal year 2007. An additional 31 million treatment courses will be available for states to purchase, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Alaska, with a population of about 650,000, is slated initially to get enough antivirals to treat 43,913 people. Another 52,695 treatment courses will be made available in fiscal year 2007. The federal government has made another 68,065 treatment courses available for Alaska to purchase. The total number of treatment courses available to Alaska is 164,673.

The first order of antivirals are expected to be available by the end of next March at the earliest. The state expects to place its order this week, Dr. Richard Mandsager, director of the state Division of Public Health, said Wednesday.

State health officials want to make sure, given the state's remoteness, that it has as much medicine on hand as possible if there is an outbreak. Antivirals should be given in about the first 12 hours to make a real difference, Mandsager said.

Alaska plans to take advantage of the option to buy some doses with a 25 percent federal subsidy so that one-quarter of the state's population would be provided with antivirals if there was an outbreak, Mandsager said.

"We plan to purchase the whole allotment," he said.

Mandsager said the initial purchase request will be for 80 percent Tamiflu and 20 percent Relenza.

"We are the only state that is placing an order right now in the Northwest," he said.

If there was a pandemic this fiscal year in Alaska, the state clearly would be short, Mandsager said. Next year looks better, he said.

"If we get to 2007, we will be on our road of having a reasonable supply," Mandsager said.

The state already has $552,000 to buy the drugs. The legislature will have to approve another $600,000 to buy the full allotment. Mandsager said he expected lawmakers to go along with the request.

The state has a small stash of 500 treatment courses in an Anchorage warehouse.

State health officials this summer will come up with a map for quickly distributing the drugs if there is an outbreak. The plan calls for moving some of the antivirals from Anchorage to cities and towns such as Bethel, Nome and Kotzebue, and eventually out to the villages.

"It won't do any good to have the medicine if we don't have a distribution plan to go," Mandsager said.

The virus has led to the death or slaughter of millions of birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Plans call for testing some 19,000 mostly live, wild and migratory birds in Alaska this year for bird flu. That's out of 75,000 to 100,000 birds the federal government hopes to test nationwide.

As of the end of June, about 5,000 samples had been taken from Alaska birds. The samples are being tested at various labs, said Lynda Giguere, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

"We have not found the high-pathogen avian influenza virus, which is the H5N1 virus. We have not found any," Giguere said.

Given Alaska's low number of domestic birds compared to some other states, it is more likely that bird flu will show up elsewhere, Mandsager said, adding that only one case involving human deaths may have come from wild birds. But he said that doesn't let Alaska off the hook, particularly if already there was an outbreak in another state.

"The likelihood is that the federal supply will be used up and we better have some in-state," he said.