Pharmacies stocking up on popular anti-viral
14/2/2003 18:02
In response to the run on a traditional Chinese anti-viral medicine,
"Ban Lan Gen", additional supplies are being stocked across the city, today's
Shanghai Morning Post reported.
The first batch of 108,000 packages will
be available from today at local hospitals and drug stores, according to
Shanghai SINE Jiahua Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., one of the city's key
manufacturers of the drug.
And after a week the additional supply will
increase to 216,000 packages, accounting for half of the company's yearly sales
in normal periods.
Sales of "Ban Lan Gen", an herbal anti-viral medicine
popular with locals suffering from colds, the flu and other respiratory
problems, has been hot this week following the media report of an outbreak of an
epidemic in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.
The
fear that the mysterious virus, which has reportedly killed five people and sent
more than 300 others to hospital in that province, could make its way to
Shanghai has caused panic buying of the drug by local consumers.
Some
local drugstores have set a limit of two packages of "Ban Lan Gen" per customer
per transaction to make their stocks last longer.
Even so, many local
pharmacies and hospitals said they are out of stock.
Local doctors
suggest people could take other anti-viral herbal medicines as an alternative to
Ban Lan Gen to protect against possible exposure to the virus.
Local
disease monitoring officials said on Thursday that no cases of the disease had
been reported in Shanghai as of that time.
The epic in Guangdong has been
brought under control, with no cases reported since Monday, Xinhua news agency
reported.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
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