04 October 2005
OPINION: Bird flu: Are Asians, Pinoys expendable?
AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
HEALTH Sec. Pingcoy Duque had all the reasons to feel indignant. Avian or bird flu is popping up in our neighbor Asian neighbors’ yards, and we still don’t have any supply of the primary antiviral drug known to combat the disease, oseltamivir (brand name: Tamiflu) in our pharmacy counters.
Duque actually termed it “zero stockpile” of the drug in the Philippines. As in zilch, nada, nothing.
That means we’re standing naked while the H5N1 deadly strain of the bird flu is creeping up on us – or, more like it, flying down on us, courtesy of those “carrier” migratory birds that usually move to tropical countries around this time, October to January, to escape the cold season in the other part of the globe.
Only one drug company, according to our health czar, has the sole authority to manufacture the antiviral drug, the Swiss-based Roche. What’s infuriating to Pinoys who have just known it from Doc Pingcoy’s perorations, is that the Roche supplies are “heavily concentrated in the First World even as the disease is ravaging bird and poultry (and, dreadfully, soon humans too) populations in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.” As unfair as unfair can be. As inhuman as inhuman can be.
To think that the World Health Organization WHO) resident representative here has been urging Asian countries to prepare for a bird flu pandemic and yet his organization does not seem to move a muscle to urge, demand or coerce Roche to also spare the Third World some of its drug production.
“Why are the more vulnerable nations (being) deprived?” DOH Sec. Duque fumed after noting that the country has yet to receive a single capsule to date from Roche despite the DOH’s having placed an order for P10 million worth of oseltamivir as early as last year.
We hate to say this but we guess Big Brother out there has expanded the old term “Guinea pig” now to “Pinoy pig.” He wants to watch first how fast and how many of us keel over from the disease to see its actual potency before sending those antivirals to cure the rest of us who may, despite everything, survive the scourge.
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
HEALTH Sec. Pingcoy Duque had all the reasons to feel indignant. Avian or bird flu is popping up in our neighbor Asian neighbors’ yards, and we still don’t have any supply of the primary antiviral drug known to combat the disease, oseltamivir (brand name: Tamiflu) in our pharmacy counters.
Duque actually termed it “zero stockpile” of the drug in the Philippines. As in zilch, nada, nothing.
That means we’re standing naked while the H5N1 deadly strain of the bird flu is creeping up on us – or, more like it, flying down on us, courtesy of those “carrier” migratory birds that usually move to tropical countries around this time, October to January, to escape the cold season in the other part of the globe.
Only one drug company, according to our health czar, has the sole authority to manufacture the antiviral drug, the Swiss-based Roche. What’s infuriating to Pinoys who have just known it from Doc Pingcoy’s perorations, is that the Roche supplies are “heavily concentrated in the First World even as the disease is ravaging bird and poultry (and, dreadfully, soon humans too) populations in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.” As unfair as unfair can be. As inhuman as inhuman can be.
To think that the World Health Organization WHO) resident representative here has been urging Asian countries to prepare for a bird flu pandemic and yet his organization does not seem to move a muscle to urge, demand or coerce Roche to also spare the Third World some of its drug production.
“Why are the more vulnerable nations (being) deprived?” DOH Sec. Duque fumed after noting that the country has yet to receive a single capsule to date from Roche despite the DOH’s having placed an order for P10 million worth of oseltamivir as early as last year.
We hate to say this but we guess Big Brother out there has expanded the old term “Guinea pig” now to “Pinoy pig.” He wants to watch first how fast and how many of us keel over from the disease to see its actual potency before sending those antivirals to cure the rest of us who may, despite everything, survive the scourge.
