Singapore to monitor use of bird flu drug

[Snowy Owl]

Singapore to monitor use of bird flu drug
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1879232.htm​

Singapore is closely monitoring overseas reports of abnormal behaviour associated with patients taking the drug Tamiflu and will take action if needed.

Suwarin Chaturapit, a deputy director of the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), said HSA was aware of the reports, mainly from Japan, but added there was still no "direct causal link" between such behaviour and the anti-viral drug oseltamivir, contained in Tamiflu.

"Nonetheless, the Health Sciences Authority has been keeping our local health-care professionals informed about these reports so that patients prescribed oseltamivir will be monitored closely," she said in a letter to The Straits Times.

"HSA will also continue to monitor the overseas situation closely and take action to safeguard public health when warranted."

She said oseltamivir was a prescription-only medicine in Singapore and should be used only under medical supervision.

Tamiflu is seen as the frontline drug against a global bird flu pandemic, but has come under investigation in Japan after dozens of people who took the drug for conventional flu killed themselves.

Japan's health ministry has ordered the importer of Tamiflu to warn that teenagers should not be prescribed the medication after further reports of abnormal behaviour by patients.

An investigation last year by the US Food and Drug Administration into the deaths in Japan concluded there was no link with Tamiflu.

South Korean officials have said they will issue warnings on the use of Tamiflu following the reports of severe psychological side affects on Japanese users.

But Indonesia says it will not issue any warnings on the use of Tamiflu.

A senior health ministry official I Nyoman Kandun said: "We do not detect any abnormal behaviour from recipients of the drug."

He says more than 1,000 doses of the drug had been administered in Indonesia, the country worst hit by bird flu with a human death toll of 66.

The virulent H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 169 people around the world since late 2003 through contact with infected birds, according to the World Health Organisation.