Amid the “swine” flu being only a step away from becoming a pandemic, government officials on Thursday held an emergency meeting to step up measures to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, which so far believed to have caused the death of 168 people in Mexico and a toddler in the US. Aside from reactivating the previous action plan to contain the spread of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian flu in 2003, the government has decide to allocate P10 million to combat the disease. The money is enough to buy 100,000 capsules of the anti-viral drug oseltamivir for 10,000 cases of swine flu. Oseltamivir is used to treat influenza virus A and B sold under the trade name tamiflu. The Philippine Department of Health said it has 600,000 capsules for 60,000 cases. Malaca?ang said the Philippines is equipped to battle the disease as it had learned from its successful efforts in preventing the entry into the country of SARS and the avian influenza. A 24-hour monitoring and command center has been established with the Health department leading the operations to prevent the onslaught of the disease, according to Malaca?ang. Airport authorities have also stationed medical personnel to man thermal scanners, while also giving its own frontline health workers medical protection. The government might also tap the military and the police to quell possible riots if the disease becomes a pandemic. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III bared the possibility in a radio interview late Wednesday, saying they are not discounting the possibility of using such “state powers.” “Our recommendation in case of a pandemic – and we pray this will not happen – is to use state powers, including the military and police, to quell lawlessness. That is a last resort and I am hopeful it will never come,” he said on Thursday in an interview over dzRH radio. Despite the Agriculture department's temporary ban of hog and pork imports from swine flu-afflicted zones, traders in Pasay City and Baguio City were reportedly caught selling imported pork from North American countries. In Baguio, authorities seized 120 kg of pork from the US, radio dzBB reported on Thursday. DzBB also reported the same day that pork imported from Canada was being sold at a public market in Pasay for a much lower price of P120 per kilogram (kg). A kilo of local pork costs between P150 and P155. The bulk of pork products imported by the Philippines comes from the US and Canada. In 2008, the Philippines imported pork products from nine of at least 12 countries where the North-American influenza has reportedly spread.
