Ministry to spend Bt180m on buying respirators for hospitals nationwide
The Cabinet yesterday approved Bt450 million to help with the Public Health Ministry's fight against the type-A (H1N1) influenza outbreak now that the number of cases and deaths have surged rapidly over the past few weeks.
The ministry's deputy permanent secretary Dr Siriporn Kanjana said Bt180 million would be spent on purchasing 180 respirators, which will be distributed to hospitals nationwide. The ministry will also spend Bt9 million on 20,000 courses of the drug zanamivir for patients resistant to oseltamivir.Two weeks ago, the Cabinet approved a Bt850-million budget to buy vaccines and oseltamivir tablets. Of this, Bt600 million was earmarked for two million doses of the vaccine and the rest for the tablets.Siriporn, who pushed for the funds at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, said Bt50 million of the budget would be used to disseminate information to the public and to pay medical workers.To date, the type-A (H1N1) virus has infected about 8,600 people, killing 66 of them. At last report, 22 patients have died over the past seven days. The Public Health Ministry will be issuing an official update at its weekly press conference today.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday asked the Public Health Ministry to provide him with a report about the outbreak and why fatalities were rising. A health expert from the ministry explained to the Cabinet that about 80 to 90 per cent of the fatalities were as a result of delayed treatment.Siriporn also raised concern about the fact that the number of seasonal flu cases had also risen drastically over the month when compared to the same period last year. The number of patients admitted to hospitals with flu-like symptom has doubled from 2,000 cases in last July to 4,000 this July.She added that the number of patients with flu-like symptoms has risen in regional areas while the number in Bangkok was stable and expected to drop.In a move to reduce the death toll, the ministry will today have clinics nationwide prescribe the oseltamivir antiviral to patients with serious flu symptoms, Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said.Witthaya said he would meet provincial public health chiefs across the country to give them updates about the outbreak, and will give them guidelines on handling infections apart from sending the antiviral drug to clinics that wish to join the programme. Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Noppamornbhodi said 800,000 tablets of oseltamivir would be sent to 16,000 clinics nationwide, which averages out to 50 tablets per clinic, which should be adequate.Under the programme, which can be joined on a voluntary basis, clinics will be given oseltamivir provided they follow a set of criteria: prescribing the antiviral; continuously collecting information about the patient; and developing a referral system so patients can be transferred to hospital. Clinics also have to follow up on patients' symptoms after they consume the antiviral drug. In addition, each medical facility needs to be disinfected to prevent spread of the disease.Each physician will be required to attend training and must pass the assessment. Moreover, they must follow the ministry's guidelines when approaching patients.Manit said the pilot project has been up and running in Ratchaburi for a week now because it reported the second-highest number of fatalities after Bangkok. He said about 150 clinics in Ratchaburi had been given 50 oseltamivir tablets but every prescription of the drug will have to be reported to the ministry.Meanwhile, the National Health Security Office (NHSO) will invite healthcare providers, hospitals and clinics to inform them about the ministry's criteria in prescribing the antiviral. A 24-year-old woman, who contracted type-A (H1N1) influenza during her pregnancy, is still under close medical supervision at Chulalongkorn University. She was about seven months pregnant when the baby had to be delivered via Caesarean section. Her five-day-old baby is now getting healthier but is still kept in an incubator. The mother, meanwhile, is in a serious condition. "She has serious lung infections," the hospital director Dr Adisorn Patradul said. "She has become more dependant on the respirator".
Source: The Nation
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