Negotiations are under way to stockpile a bird-flu-fighting drug for Southeast Asia to help guard against a global flu pandemic, the head of the UN health agency said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes to initially acquire 1 million doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu -- the only drug effective against avian influenza in humans -- WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook said on Tuesday.
Lee said talks were under way with other countries and with the Swiss drug manufacturer Hoffmann-La Roche to allow the medicine to be distributed to poor countries for free or at highly discounted rates.
The WHO currently has only enough Tamiflu to treat about 125,000 people, he said.
"Clearly for us and for others this is very important -- to deal with the problem at the source," he told reporters in Bangkok, where he was attending a global conference on health promotion. "WHO has a very limited stock. We want to increase the stockpile, and we would like to deploy this to countries in this region."
Lee also warned that it made no sense for wealthy countries to stockpile large volumes of either Tamiflu or an experimental vaccine that has recently shown promise in humans.
He said the best way to control the virus, if it begins spreading among humans, is to hit it hard at the source -- with wealthier countries sharing their drugs.
The US already has enough Tamiflu to treat 2.3 million people and is working to acquire more, while Britain, France, Finland, Norway and New Zealand are placing orders that would cover between 20 and 40 percent of their populations.
"It doesn't really make sense [to say] `This is mine. We will wait until the problem hits us and use this,'" Lee said. "On a map, we deal with boundaries, but the virus doesn't carry a passport or visa."
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