Up to 640,000 flu deaths feared | 日本のニュースを英語で読むならジャパンタイムズウィークリー


	UPDATE: Saturday, June 12, 2010 The Japan Times Weekly 2005年11月19日号（バックナンバー）

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Up to 640,000 flu deaths feared

Antiviral drug Tamiflu is seen as the frontline medication for bird flu.

The government predicts as many as 640,000 people will die if bird flu develops into a human form that spreads widely, and it was to form a committee to draw up an outbreak action plan, the Asahi Shimbun reported Nov. 12.

Influenza countermeasures recommended by the committee may include temporarily closing schools, amusement parks and other public places where people congregate and adopting travel restrictions, the paper said.

The committee will ask the Health Ministry to draw up plans for the frontline medicine, such as Tamiflu, urge the Agriculture Ministry to outline plans for handling chicken farms and task the Foreign Ministry with overseas travel warnings, according to the paper.

The nation already buys more than 60 percent of the world's Tamiflu.

A Health Ministry blueprint unveiled Nov. 14 called for the country to keep enough Tamiflu to treat 25 million patients for five days. The previous target was 15 million people for three days.

The report came amid news that using Tamiflu could be dangerous. Throughout Asia, bird flu has killed at least 64 people -- two-thirds of them in Vietnam.

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