Southern Africa: Not enough drugs to handle a pandemic

"I know for a fact we haven't stockpiled. If you don't have a national stockpile, that's it - you're not going to get the drugs in time," said Ed Rybicki, a virologist who teaches at the University of Cape Town.

In the absence of a vaccine for swine flu, antiviral medicines such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) have been used to treat the disease.

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