GOVT PROVIDES 450 TAMIFLU TABLETS TO ANTICIPATE A-H1N1 ONSLAUGHT

Gorontalo, Aug 5 (ANTARA) -- The Gorontalo provincial health service has prepared 450 Tamiflu tablets in anticipation of the spread of the swice flu (A-H1N1) virus.

Head of the contagious diseases eradication and environmental health service Soepandi Abdullah said the drugs were provided by the Ministry of Health as a reserve.

"If the Tamiflu supply at the public health centers or hospital had run out, we will supply it," he said Tuesday, adding that it would not be until 2013 that the drug expires.

He said when Tamiflu was for the first time used on a A-H1N1, it was taken twice a day.

In the area, he said, there were three suspect patients under treatment at the Aloei Saboe hospital in Gorontalo. "It was hoped that the result of a comprehensive examination of their blood samples in Jakarta would turn out to be negative," he said.

Nevertheless he said he and his medical staff remained watchful, because the virus relatively spread easily through the atmosphere with a death rate of 0.04 percent.

"So, it is quite possible that a person who had a contact with another person who had been declared A-H1N1 positive, could contract the disease although they merely had a conversation," he said.