Romania Deems Flu Pandemic Probable; Scarce Resources Revealed

A document obtained by Mediafax Friday shows a pandemic of the new flu strain could spread in a matter of hours, having a mortality rate of up to 3% and cutting the active force by 20% to 50%.

 

Health Minister Ion Bazac presented the document at the government’s meeting on Tuesday, ministry’s undersecretary of state Raed Arafat told reporters.

 

The “Public Healthcare and the Response to a Swine Flu Pandemic” document notes: “Are we close to a pandemic? We cannot be sure, but it is possible and it becomes increasingly likely. Scientists don’t know when the pandemic flu will occur again, but they insist on its certain appearance.”

 

At the question “Are we ready for the pandemic flu?”, one of the answers says Romania only has 40,000 antiviral medications, while France is ready to provide enough doses to ease flu like symptoms for all its citizens.

 

Despite of zero swine flu cases, Romania gets ready to close its borders on foreigners and take immediate steps in case of a pandemic.

 

Some of the solutions included in the document include international co-operation and real-time information exchange, a national campaign to inform the public, co-operation between authorities and the media etc.

 

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization raised its threat level to Phase 5, the second-highest.

 

Phase 5 means that a virus has spread into at least two countries causing large outbreaks. At Phase 6, the virus has spread to more regions in the world and a pandemic is on its way.