With today's news that the W.H.O. is investigating the first possible human-to-human transmission of Bird Flu, I went ahead and popped for $1100 for 120 doses of Tamiflu for my family FAK. Should be here in 3 weeks. My partner ordered from the same company a few months ago and his MD verified that they were legitimate with valid lot numbers, etc.

I was wondering if anyone else has stocked up on Tamiflu or any other "Plan B" option in lieu of vaccinations.

(cough) Not yet. (sniff)

Seriously, I probably won't until the problem shows itself as real.

Little early IMHO. Who knows what the strain will be IF it becomes serious.

They've investigated other possible human-to-human cases before and found no mutation. I'll worry if and when it is confirmed that there is a human-to-human strain that is easily infectious.

120 doses? How big is your family? Or are you looking to black market it? Do you know how to store it, when to use it? Or are you going to self diagnose?

Seriously, hoarding meds is about the stupidest damn thing I can think of. It goes right down there with animal sacrifices and burning witches, thinking that some god is annoyed with you.

And no, you aren't getting special treatment, I tear the head off everyone who hoards meds.

It's his first post. Be gentle. Let's at least wait for his second post before we tear him a new one. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The jury's still out on this Indonesia cluster. I don't think it'll amount to much because the virus has already been analyzed at two different reference labs and both showed no new mutations, so these people probably got it some other way or were somehow particularly susceptible. I mean, I don't mean to be flippant--these poor peole are still dead, but I seriously don't think that it's the start of a pandemic. (I sound like the naysayer in some bad movie just before the new killer virus starts spreading like wildfire)

I discourage stockpiling Tamiflu, too. How did you come up with 120 doses? Is that a case? Because 120 doses is enough for 12 full therapeutic courses (at least of normal flu).

Since we don't know what organism the next pandemic will be caused by, it's rather hard to prepare for it except for general preparedness steps. The next real pandemic strain could be totally immune to Tamiflu. Masks? Gloves? No good evidence anywhere that they would be effective in a pandemic situation.

I don't know if you have heard about the noise tamiflu has made in Japan. It seems some people may have been experiencing nasty (possibly fatal) side effects to the drug.

Doctors in Japan warning about tamiflu sidefects

Over here there has been much hype about the H5N1 strain with some people thinking the world is coming to an end. The truth of the matter is, the only people who are getting this virus at the moment are:
1: Those who eat improperly cooked sick birds or prepare sick poultry for meals, (many people in Asia do this because they can't afford to eat their healthy birds, they sell the healthy ones and eat the sick ones)
2: Those who eat RAW duck blood soup, from sick ducks.
3: Those who have fighting cocks (the keepers feed the birds from their own mouths!

There has been at least one instance of a doctor treating an infected person who contracted the virus but that was put down to him ingesting contaminated body fluids.

The expert who discovered this strain of avian influenza said that in the lab it is rather easy to mutate a virus such as this but in nature it practically never happens.

Sorry if you've already heard this, I just thought I would share a different point of view.

Cheers.

I have read that there is a very small window of opportunity for using antibiotics. Check with your doctor -- if he/she knows.

MRSA has been showing up around here for the last couple of years, and many doctors are still diagnosing it as insect (like spider) bites.

Sue

You may want to review these:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/guidelines/useofoseltamivir2006_03_17A.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/transcripts/t060114.htm

The true effectiveness of Tamiflu hasn't really been well tested in humans. Anecdotal data suggests that it SHOULD shorten the couse of infection. It is unlikely to Prevent infection. "Bird" (avian) flu, strain H5N1 influenza is a virus, not a bacteria - so antibiotics will be of no use in treating it, unless to treat secondary infections in a "rundown" host.

As I said, I wasn't giving him special treatment just because he's knew. This is as silly as rubbing snow on frost bite, and just as likely to be bad in the long run.

These strange cases in Japan have been making the headlines there for a while now. I think it's been a while since the last case. Unlike the US, Tamiflu is used much more frequently in Japan. If these behavioral changes are due to Tamiflu, then we may not have noticed them here simply because it's not used that much here and/or health care providers may not make the connection and report it. Plus, I don't think it's prescribed for children much in America.