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Ventilators could be scarce if avian flu spreads

Respiratory Care Weekly, March 15, 2006

Experts say that if a bird flu pandemic hits the United States, hospitals could be almost 743,000 ventilators short to give to patients, according to the New York Times. Currently, the country has about 105,000 ventilators spread across its medical facilities. During flu season, about 100,000 of them are already in use. In a worst-case scenario, those ventilators plus about 4,000 in the federal National Disaster System's Strategic National Stockpile would not be enough, nor would there be enough RTs to run the machines.

All this points to the country's lack of readiness for disease outbreaks, say some experts in the New York Times article. In an effort to prepare for such an outbreak, Congress authorized $3.8 billion of the $7.1 billion President Bush requested for flu preparedness; 90% of the money is earmarked for stockpiling the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

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