japan - superior antiviral dist = less deaths

Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009


Japan's H1N1 cases at flu epidemic stage
Tamiflu stockpile sufficient to deal with virus: expert


By MARIKO KATO
Staff writer

If these statistics are applied to Japan, which has a population of 127 million, the country will see more than 25 million confirmed cases and 1.2 million hospitalizations. There could also be as many as 127,000 deaths, which puts the current toll into perspective, Sugaya said.

But the expert said Japan is better equipped than other countries to protect its citizens because it excels in the distribution of antiviral drugs.

"Compared to other countries, Japan has considerably fewer seriously ill patients, and that is because they give out Tamiflu and Relenza," he said.

While in other countries these drugs are not widely used, partly due to the cost, Japan has a stockpile large enough to treat 60 million people, and doctors are quick to administer them to virtually all H1N1 patients, he said.

Tamiflu and Relenza are more reliable methods of treating the new flu than a vaccine, which will not be ready by fall and in too short supply to give to all those at risk, Sugaya said.

On Thursday, the health ministry reduced its previous estimate of the number of people who can be treated with the vaccine by the end of the year from 14 million to 13 million. The treatment will start from mid- to late October, a spokeswoman for the ministry's tuberculosis and infectious diseases division said.

Despite the late and inadequate supply of the vaccine, Sugaya remains confident that Japan will be ready to fight the infections come fall.

"As long as proper measures are taken and Tamiflu or Relenza are administered, Japan is fully equipped to deal with the wave," he said.