Swine flu medicine available here

The medicine is called GPOAFlu.

The Public Health Ministry has up to 3 million tablets in stock, while the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) has 170,000.

GPO director Dr Witit Artavatkun said infected patients needed to take two tablets daily for five consecutive days.

The World Health Organisation has now advised all countries to intensify surveillance for unusual outbreaks of flulike illness and severe pneumonia.

The outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico has already killed more than 100 people there.

Symptoms of swine flu in humans are fever, lethargy, diminished appetite and coughing. Some people have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Humantohuman transmission occurs when infected people cough or sneeze. People may also become infected by coming into physical contact with something containing the flu virus on its surface and then touching their mouth or nose.

So far, there have been no reported cases of the new strain of swine flu in Thailand.

Disease Control Department spokesman Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak said measures to identify and treat infected patients flying back from outbreak areas would be key to preventing the disease from spreading in Thailand.

"If anyone is suspected of having the disease, he or she should be prescribed the medicine right away," Kumnuan said.

Witit said the GPO could deliver the GPOAFlu medicine to Bangkokbased medical facilities within 12 hours.

"For those outside of Bangkok, we can make delivery within 24 hours," Witit said, adding that if necessary, GPO could manufacture another 1 million tablets more of GPOAFlu right away, because it had the raw materials at hand.

Dr Supamit Chunsuttiwat, head of the Emerging Infectious Disease Division, said the faster that patients could receive GPOAFlu, the better.

Kumnuan said the new strain of swine flu had a fatality rate of about 6 per cent in Mexico.

"The fatality rate of bird flu is 60 per cent," he said.

Kumnuan also said swine flu would be easier to control than bird flu: "When it comes to swine flu, we can focus on humans, but bird flu involves the culling of so many fowl."