The cabinet has approved a budget of nearly Bt800 million to prevent an outbreak of a new strain of human influenza, according to Deputy Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenrattanakul.

Dr. Suchai told TNA that the cabinet approved the Bt776 million budget of the Ministry of Public Health´s operational strategy to prevent the outbreak of any new strain of influenza at its weekly meeting here on Tuesday.

The strategy, jointly worked out by two Public Health Ministry task forces in charge of developing measures to prevent and address bird flu and human flu, was aimed at preventing Thailand from becoming the original source of a global outbreak of any feared new strain of human influenza, he said.

Studies showed that a global outbreak of human influenza could emerge every 10-30 years.

The first world outbreak, called the Spanish Flu with the H1N1 strain, took place in 1918 leaving about 20 million world population dead, higher than fatalities recorded in the WWI

The second outbreak, called the Asian Flu with the H2N2 strain, emerged in 1957, followed by the third outbreak, called the Hong Kong Flu with the H3N2 strain, taking place in 1968.

"Epidemiologic studies indicate that a new outbreak of human flu with any new strain could cause as many as 26 million world population infected, with a possible fatality rate of up to 100,000", Dr. Suchai cautioned.

Most of the approved budget by the Thai cabinet, or nearly Bt600 million, will be used for pharmaceutical and medical equipment preparations to deal with the disease, while the rest will be earmarked for emergency measures and public relations campaigns to cope with the disease, according to Dr. Suchai.

The Ministry of Public Health would review the strategy every six months to ensure its efficaciousness, he said.