Korea Moves To Cover A/H1N1 Test With National Health Insurance
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
SEOUL - Alarmed over the deaths of two South Koreans over the weekend infected with the A/H1N1 virus and over the rising number of people who have fallen victim to the pandemic, the government is moving to have the H1N1 test covered by the national health insurance system
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SEOUL - Alarmed over the deaths of two South Koreans over the weekend infected with the A/H1N1 virus and over the rising number of people who have fallen victim to the pandemic, the government is moving to have the H1N1 test covered by the national health insurance system. People have been receiving, without charge, one test called "Real-Time RT-PCR," in government-run community clinics. But, because of the spiraling number of Koreans infected, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said another test called "Conventional RT-PCR," which will be conducted in private hospitals, will be covered by the national insurance. "Since people are getting increasingly nervous over the flu after the two deaths over the weekend, the health ministry will cover the Conventional RT-PCR test under the national health insurance," Yeom Min-Seob, manager of the ministry's health insurance benefits division, told PharmAsia News. Yeom said the health ministry was slated to convene a meeting Monday afternoon to hammer out solutions to better fight the spreading flu. In private hospitals, the flu virus test costs about KRW120,000, or about $100, per person. As of Monday, the number of people infected with A/H1N1 in South Korea had reached 2,165. On Sunday morning, an elderly woman died from the swine flu, becoming South Korea's second fatality triggered by the pandemic. The 63-year-old woman, who had been treated for the flu since Aug. 8, died of multiple organ failure caused by acute respiratory distress syndrome, according to the ministry. The victim, who lived in Seoul, had never been abroad or in close contact with confirmed flu patients, the health ministry said. She might have contracted the flu through neighbors or a community-level transmission. One day earlier, a man in his 50s died from complications triggered by the flu. He returned from a trip to Thailand in early August. South Korea has stockpiled enough doses of Roche's Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza (zanamivir) for 5.3 million people, or 10 percent of the country's total population. Concerned by the ballooning number of people infected with the H1N1 virus in neighboring Japan, the South Korean government has signed contracts recently to secure more of Roche's and GSK's antivirals (Also see "Korea Signs Deals With Roche, GSK For More Tamiflu, Relenza" - Scrip, 25 May, 2009.). The government is expected to recommend that about 5 million people, including pregnant women, soldiers and policemen, receive the flu vaccination, possibly beginning in November. South Korean pharmaceutical company Green Cross started test production of its own A/H1N1 flu vaccine after receiving a virus strain from the UK's National Institution for Biological Standards and Control and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. (Also see "South Korea's Green Cross Begins "Test Production" of Flu Vaccine" - Scrip, 8 Jul, 2009.) After completing clinical trials, the company had planned to market the vaccine in Korean market beginning in 2010 - at the latest - after acquiring Korea FDA's approval. The vaccine will be produced at the company's plant in Hwasoon, southwest of Seoul. The plant opened and began test production in early July as part of government efforts initiated in 2005 to better fight various strains of flu by fostering the construction of domestic vaccine plants instead of importing vaccines. - Peter Chang ([email protected]) |