New Delhi: 20,000 units of Tamiflu, the vaccine for avian flu, have arrived in the country.
Donated by the World Health Organisation, the medicine is being kept at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in the capital under tight security.
However India?s stockpile target has fallen worryingly short.
The country needs another 9,80,000 units to meet its contingency vaccine objective.
Tamiflu has a shelf life of five years and is the first line of defence against the human flu spurred by avian influenza.
It is highly effective against the avian H5N1 strain if administered at an early stage.
Despite cases of bird flu being reported from the surrounding countries, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, assured the people of India on Wednesday saying that there has been no outbreak of the flu in the country.
He stated that the vaccine was being procured only as a contingency measure.
The Avian Influenza Cell at NICD will also be the nodal agency for monitoring the deadly disease that has killed 67people so far worldwide.
The government has decided that if there is an outbreak, birds in a three-kilometer vicinity will have to be killed.
As of now, of the 25000 samples tested, not a single one has been found to be positive.
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