The Department of Health has finally accepted the argument that we have been making for the last year or so that the order that they have placed for a stock pile of 14.6 million doses of Tamiflu will not be sufficient to contain a flu pandemic. It is our view that the most effective way to treat a flu outbreak is to prescribe on the basis of preventative therapy and the stock that the government has in place would not allow for that given their estimates of the infection rate.
Government figures have suggested that a flu pandemic could infect up to half of the population and kill up to 750,000 people. A further study has suggested that those figures could be reduced by 40-50 per cent if the Tamiflu antiviral is available to treat everyone who requires it.
Tamiflu is available on prescription through The Online Clinic on the basis of immediate need or as a precautionary measure in advance of need. Studies have shown that Tamiflu can stop 89 per cent of those exposed to the flu virus of falling ill.