50 million face masks available
2005-10-24 11:31
Paris - Fifty million masks to protect people against possible bird flu infection are being delivered to French hospitals, said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Tuesday.
Villepin told lawmakers that by year's end 200 million masks will be available and France will have enough anti-viral medication to treat 14 million people.
The foreign ministry, meanwhile, worked to protect French living overseas, particularly in Asia where the bird flu virus has become widespread. Protective masks and anti-viral drugs were being stocked in embassies outside the European Union (EU), the ministry said.
Outside Asia, the embassy stocks will cover 30% of the French population, while stocks at 16 embassies in Asia, where the risk is greatest, will cover all French living in those countries.
EU foreign ministers on Tuesday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia to Europe a global threat. Migrating birds could carry the virus westward. France has decided to step up surveillance of migrating fowl as well as poultry, Villepin said.
Experts fear the virus could mutate to make it easily transmissible to and among humans.
- AP