Increasing numbers of Turks are rushing to pharmacies to buy the anti-viral drug Tamiflu following an outbreak of bird flu in northwestern Turkey, but there is a shortage on the market, Turkish pharmacists said on Thursday.
The European Union had announced earlier that tests confirmed the virus found on a turkey farm in the province of Balikesir last week was caused by the lethal H5N1 strain which has killed more than 60 people in Asia.
Tamiflu, produced by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, is considered to be the most effective drug against bird flu.
”Since it is an imported and relatively expensive drug, we normally keep two or three boxes in stock because it has not been much in demand until now,” said Askin Dogruyol, who works in a pharmacy in the Tunali shopping area of the Turkish capital, Ankara.
”Now, we get 15 to 20 people daily, asking for not only one but 20 or 30 boxes of the drug,” he said.
Another pharmacist, who did not wish to give his name, reported an increase of ”50 to 60%” of those seeking the drug, a wave he believed had been fuelled by media reports on its effectiveness against bird flu.
But the pharmacists added that they were finding it difficult to meet customer demand since they could not obtain the drug from their suppliers.
”We were told that [Roche] in Istanbul has run out of stock,” said Sidika Baran, who also has a shop in Tunali.
None of the pharmacists reported huge increases in the number of people seeking influenza vaccines, adding that they already sell a significant number of flu jabs every year.
Turkey says no human cases have been reported so far, but panic has gripped Turks since the weekend’s outbreak, with 28 000 boxes of Tamiflu — out of an estimated 55 000 available in the country — being lapped up since then.
A senior health ministry official said in remarks published in a newspaper on Thursday that Turkey had contacted Roche for an import of one million boxes of the drug in a bid to prevent a possible flu pandemic.
”We have reached a preliminary agreement for the initial purchase of some 500 000 doses,” Turan Buzgan told the Milliyet daily.
While avian influenza primarily affects birds, one strain of the virus known as H5N1 has spread to humans causing at least 60 deaths in Southeast Asia since 2003.
Scientists have warned that millions of people around the world could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become a lethal and highly contagious new disease. – AFP
