Battle plan against bird flu pandemic

NST: The simulation exercise to test the country’s influenza pandemic preparedness plan is set to take place by March.
Tomorrow, Health director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican will meet high commissioners, ambassadors and representatives from the business sector to brief them on the plan.
"I will brief them on our preparation for a flu pandemic, the strategies in place to deal with a breakout and how we will handle the situation," he told the New Straits Times.
The meeting follows concerns expressed by envoys based here that they were in the dark as to how well Malaysia was prepared for a bird flu pandemic.
Three committees have been formed to handle the pandemic, including an inter-ministerial committee chaired by Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
Dr Chua’s tasks include updating ministers on the preparedness plan and strategies to deal with a flu pandemic and to outline each minister’s role in the simulation exercise.
Similarly, Dr Ismail said, he had held talks with the authorities and non-governmental organisations on the issue.
He had also briefed state health directors and state executive councillors.
On Nov 11, Dr Chua announced Malaysia’s contingency plans, which include police patrols at quarantine zones — a three-kilometre area of any suspected human case of bird flu — and health authorities conducting house-to-house checks for other suspected cases.
These moves are part of a Level-3 alert, raised when the H5N1 avian flu virus spreads to humans.
(Level 2 indicates a human pandemic outside Malaysia; Level 1, detection of a new virus; Level 0 means Malaysia is virus free.)
At Level 3, the ministry has the discretion to declare an emergency.
The ministry needs RM60 million for the first stage to fight avian flu.
This includes stockpiling the anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 10 per cent of the population, increasing manpower, buying protective gear, equipping hospitals and conducting awareness campaigns.
Dr Ismail said all state hospitals were now equipped with the manpower, negative-pressure isolation rooms and implements to handle a flu pandemic.

THE MALAYSIAN BIRD FLU PANDEMIC COMMITTEES
Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek
National Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan Committee chaired by Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Ismail Merican
Technical committee chaired by Deputy Health director-general (Public Health) Datuk Dr Shafie Ooyub