Every Canadian who falls sick during a pandemic will have access to anti-viral medication, federal Health Minister Tony Clement said Saturday.
Federal Health Minister Tony Clement and New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green meet media at Saturday's health conference on pandemic planning. (PR Direct/Canadian Press)
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"We want everyone who is ill to receive treatment," Clement said after a conference of provincial and territorial health ministers in Toronto. "A strategy is now in place to make sure everyone who needs [anti-viral] drugs will get them."
Clement, who was Ontario's health minister during the SARS epidemic in 2003, said he has been working with Canadian manufacturers to increase the supply of the anti-viral drugs used to protect people against severe acute respiratory syndrome, bird flu and other infectious diseases.
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The federal government has already stockpiled 11 million drug doses in Quebec alone, and there are plans to raise the supply to 13 million doses, with equivalent supplies in other regions.
Clement has been working with the provinces to prepare for a wide range of public health emergencies.
"We want authorities to have any [public health emergency] situation under control as much as possible," he said, noting that in many instances, as was the case with SARS, the threat will be something Canadians have never dealt with before.
The meeting was co-hosted by New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green, who said the provincial ministers discussed how to work together in a crisis.
"Our ability to respond effectively and properly to a pandemic in the future is very much dependent upon what we [were] doing today," he said. "We have to ensure that all segments of Canadian society are as ready as possible to meet the various challenges that accompany a pandemic outbreak.
"Being properly prepared is very important," Green said.
Clement also paid tribute to the many health workers in Ontario who risked their lives fighting the SARS epidemic. "The front-line professionals were truly dedicated," he said. "I'm sure we'll get that level of dedication again."
The Conservative government committed up to $1 billion over the next five years for pandemic preparedness in the recent federal budget.