Carrier Purchases 10,000 Doses Of Antiviral Tamiflu

Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways has ordered a stockpile of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to be used in case a human outbreak of avian flu sweeps through areas in which the carrier operates.

The move, billed "as a purely precautionary measure" in a Time magazine report, comes as cases of "bird flu" have already been reported in poultry in China, Malaysia and Japan.

While Virgin did not cite the specific amount ordered by the carrier, Time reported the 10,000 figure comes from Sir Richard Branson himself, who owns a majority stake of the airline he created in 1984.

Virgin does not currently serve the countries that have reported human cases of the disease so far -- Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand -- although the carrier does fly into Hong Kong, which reported human outbreaks of a bird flu strain eight years ago.

Virgin stresses there is no need to alter its routes at this time. "Virgin Atlantic is closely monitoring the spread of avian flu and is in regular contact with the (British) and U.S. governments," the company said Wednesday.

"At this stage, there is no need to change any advice to passengers traveling with Virgin Atlantic, or to alter any of the airline's procedures."

Virgin Atlantic said it was also "evaluating a range of other systems and measures" -- good thing, too, as it is unlikely any supplies of Tamiflu needed by the carrier would be available anytime soon.

The antiviral drug -- that is only produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Group -- is already on backorder worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, it will take 10 years at current production rates to treat 20 percent of the world's population.

FMI: www.virginatlantic.com, www.who.org