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Korea earmarks money for fight against bird flu
SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will spend 27.5 billion won (US$26.4 million) this year to help prevent further outbreaks of bird flu and brace for possible human infections, officials said Tuesday.
More than half the money will be used to purchase avian influenza drug Tamiflu for around 2.5 million people, with the remainder to be spent on buying disinfection equipment, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.
The measures is a follow-up on a recent announcement by the nation's disease control authorities that it will double stockpiles of Tamiflu, ensuring there is enough of the drug to treat 5 percent of the country' population by the end of this year. Currently, the nation holds enough to treat 1.35 million people.
The drug, manufactured by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG. is the only drug known to effectively treat human patients of bird flu.
South Korea has been striving to contain the spread of bird flu after the first case of avian influenza was confirmed in the country's southwestern area earlier last month.
This year alone, millions of chickens, ducks and birds have been slaughtered due to the disease.
Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.
No human deaths have been reported in South Korea but around 240 people have reportedly died from the deadly H5N1 strain worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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