# 2206
This is an idea that has been bandied about for nearly a year, but it now appears to have progressed into action. The UK currently has 15 million 10-pill courses of Oseltamivir for it's population of roughly 60 million.
It now plans to double that stockpile.
This from the London Telegraph.
Pandemic flu drug stockpile to be doubled
Stockpiles of drugs to combat pandemic flu are to be doubled so half the population can be treated in the event of a worldwide epidemic.
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Last Updated: 3:53PM BST 05 Aug 2008
Adverts will be published on Wednesday inviting drug companies to bid for contracts to supply antivirals, which can reduce the length and severity of flu symptoms.
Currently the UK only has enough stockpiled to treat one in four of the population.
The stockpile of antibiotics which will be used if flu victims develop complications such as pneumonia will also be increased.
It is feared up to 50,000 people in the UK would die if another flu pandemic strikes.
The drugs will be at the forefront of any defence against pandemic flu in the first months of the outbreak as scientists race to produce a vaccine.
While a major (and welcomed) increase in their stockpile size, this move still falls short of the recommendations made last fall by the UK's SAG (Science Advisory Group).
They recommended a tripling of the current stockpile.
'Too few jabs' to fight flu epidemic
Last Updated: 2:44am GMT 11/11/2007
Stockpiles of drugs to fight a flu pandemic must be increased if the death toll from an outbreak of the virus is to be minimised, senior government advisers have warned
The latest research by the Pandemic Influenza Scientific Advisory Group claims that the number of antiviral doses held by the Government must be tripled if a flu pandemic is to be effectively controlled.
The current stockpile of 14.6 million courses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu covers 25 per cent of the population.
However, the group warned that "under no circumstances" would it be possible to limit effectively the number of cases and deaths with the existing stocks.
The United States, meanwhile, continues to build it's stockpile but remains short of its goal of 25% coverage for the nation.
For more information on the limitations of our strategic national stockpile, and the problems of only having 10-pill courses available, you might wish to check out an earlier blog of mine called:
For information on the government's recent call for the private sector to stockpile antivirals, you may wish to read:
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