Summer polls: Public draws line at flu doses for politicians

Most New Zealanders are happy for nurses and doctors to be first in line for anti-flu medicine if a deadly influenza pandemic strikes.

Nearly 90 per cent of those who responded to a Herald-DigiPoll survey agreed that front-line health workers, police and border control staff should receive the first doses of Tamiflu.

But only 32 per cent thought Cabinet ministers and their staff should have priority access.

The Government has stockpiled 855,000 courses of Tamiflu, at a cost of more than $26 million.

The National Party revealed in November that the Government had drafted a list of essential services, the staff of which would be given priority access to Tamiflu. Apart from ministers, it included security and intelligence advisers.

The Health Ministry later said a draft plan proposed reserving 10 per cent of the stockpile for essential services, including essential health services, police, defence, border agencies, key emergency decision-making bodies, social support, critical infrastructure and certain residential facilities.

But it said decisions on Tamiflu's use must wait until a pandemic occurred and its characteristics were known, such as which groups were hardest hit.

Health authorities internationally are on edge about the possibility of a flu pandemic because of the spread of the H5N1 strain of bird flu since 2003. It has led to the deaths of tens of millions of birds and more than 70 people.

It cannot yet spread easily between humans, but the World Health Organisation fears it could change to do so, sparking a global pandemic that could kill up to seven million people.

Experts cannot predict when the next flu pandemic will occur, but they point out that three or four happen each century and that the last was nearly 40 years ago.

In addition to stockpiling Tamiflu, the Government has given district health boards $6 million to buy masks and other protective gear; it has made a deal for vaccine supply from Australia; and Pharmac is asking drug companies to stockpile antibiotics to treat secondary infections, at a possible taxpayer cost of up to $10 million.

Greens health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley in June revealed weaknesses in New Zealand's pandemic preparedness, but acknowledges improvements have been made.

"They are planning and that's good but there are still some significant gaps. Probably no country in the world is properly prepared."

She urged the Government to consult health workers to see if many were likely to refuse to work in a flu pandemic unless they were given Tamiflu preventively to protect them from infection.

A vaccine against a pandemic flu virus will take several months to be developed and delivered to New Zealand once a pandemic is declared.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson said buying more anti-viral medicine was an open question. However, all public-health advice was against using it preventively, other than for people exposed to a sick person who had not yet become ill themselves.

Preventive use would cost lives, he said, by consuming supplies that could be used to treat sick people. It could also lead to a pandemic virus becoming resistant to the drugs.

Mr Hodgson said that, in addition to the extensive planning already publicised, "It's going to remain a fairly active space for the next couple of months".