Senior officials in the state Heath Ministry have expressed the confidence that Karnataka is well equipped to handle the H1N1 virus causing swine flu cases as the state has adequate stocks of Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) capsules used in the treatment of the swine flu.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made a supply of 17,000 Tamiflu drugs for Karnataka in July 2009. Out of which 5,000 is with the State directorate of health and family welfare. In addition, 200 Tamiflu syrup for paediatrics has been given to the state, informed Dr C Anbhazhagan, regional director of Health, government of India.

The state's swine flu health monitoring and treatment centre, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, has to date 1390 capsules after prescribing to the patients undergoing treatment at its Centre. The 11 private hospitals have received 100 capsules each. The 14 district hospitals have stocks of 100 capsules each. Currently, 84 cases of swine flu are reported and being treated in the state. There is no cause for alarm as virus is under control and there is ample stock of drugs, Dr Shashidar Buggi, director Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases told Pharmabiz.

For the management of the novel influenza strain defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic, Roche, the innovator of Tamiflu, has initiated the Tamiflu Reserves Programme (TRP) for the developing countries. It makes the drug available to governments in developing nations through WHO. It has donated to WHO 5.65 million courses of the antiviral drug. This includes replenishment of the Regional Stockpile of 2 million treatment courses of Tamiflu to be held by the WHO and used to address regional outbreaks. In addition, Rapid Response Stockpile of 3 million treatment tablets are with Roche which will be dispatched under the WHO instruction. Further, there is also a new paediatric stockpile of 650,000 treatment courses of Tamiflu small (30mg and 45mg) capsules made available to countries.

Union govt makes regular supplies of Tamiflu to the Regional Health directorate which is provided to the State Directorate of Health. These are dispatched to the government and private hospitals, said Dr T S Cheluvaraj, joint director (Communicable Diseases), Health and family welfare, government of Karnataka and nodal officer-in-charge of Swine flu committee in the state.

Tamiflu and the generic versions of oseltamivir phosphate are not available at any chemist outlet in the state. If any pharmacy outlets here are known to stock the same, the licenses will be cancelled. Our team of inspectors have been aggressive in conducting surprise checks, said Dr BR Jagashetty, drugs controller of Karnataka.

The prescription of Tamil flu is two capsules day for five days and as a Prophylactic it is one capsule a day. These drugs are given free of cost to the patients even at private hospitals. The latter charges a fee only for admission and bed charges if cases are admitted.