Congress recently negotiated with pharmaceutical companies to step up production of drugs to treat the symptoms of avian flu. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then offered the drugs at federally negotiated prices of around $20 per treatment.

States can buy the drugs at a three-to-one split, with the state paying 75 percent of the cost and the federal government, 25 percent. States can buy more of the drugs at the contracted price, but must pay 100 percent of the cost for supplies above the allotment.

Under the federal formula, states are offered enough antiviral courses for 25 percent of each state's population. South Carolina is eligible for around $6 million worth of the medicine, and has opted to participate in the program.

Stockpiling medicine to fight an influenza epidemic always is a gamble. And these antiviral medicines are not the equivalent of a flu vaccine, which often can provide defenses against getting the flu in the first place. Tamiflu and Relenza, the two antiviral medicines being stockpiled, are designed to lessen the severity of the symptoms once people have contracted the flu. But, so far, they are the only substances that provide potential relief to victims of avian flu.

Many international health experts believe it is only a matter of time before some strain of avian influenza arrives in the United States by way of an infected bird or carried by an infected human. The H5N1 virus, which now spreads only among birds, could mutate and spread from human to human. The World Health Organization reports that at least 229 people are known to have contracted bird flu since 2003, and 131 of them died.

Of course, the experts could be wrong, and avian flu might never reach pandemic levels. Or it could mutate into milder strains that aren't life threatening.

But if only one category of antiviral medicine can help avian flu victims, we're glad that state officials have decided to stock up on it while it is readily available.

IN SUMMARY
South Carolina is among the states that are stockpiling antiviral flu medicine.

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