Florida may reject federal flu assistance

Speaking of a thumb in the eye. Florida’s Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness has decided to be the only state to reject federal assistance in preparing for the next flu epidemic — all this despite the risk that such an event could kill 128,000 Floridians and send another 640,000 to hospitals. (Florida, the retiree capital of the world, is particularl vulnerable.) At issue is the availability of $36 million in discounted Tamiflu intended to create a state stockpile. But although Governor Charlie Crist considers the drugs “essential”, the chairman of the state legislative committee overseeing the budget is resistant. “It just doesn’t rank as one of my priorities,” said state Representative Aaron Bean, pointing out that the drug’s shelf life has been questioned.

This position, say experts, is intolerable and shortsighted, as Tamiflu and its competitor Relenza are the only suitable drugs on the market. “If the medicine is provided to patients who are suffering from influenza within 24 to 48 hours after they begin to show symptoms, it has the potential to greatly decrease how sick someone would get,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It would also decrease the amount of time they would be sick.” But if there was no stockpile, manufacturing requirements would result in a delay of four to six months, and the world production capaciity is only 350 million per year — reasons, any sensible person would think, to buy some now, especially when the federal government is offering it at a discount. A five day treatment of Tamiflu costs $110 at retail but only $15 at the federal rate. All told, the failure to buy the drugs now could end up costing the state $130 million in the future.