On September 1, 2009, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) has purchased 2.68 million doses of Tamiflu from Roche.According to Roche, the first 1 million doses will be imported into Taiwan within a month at the earliest and the remaining doses will be subsequently imported into Taiwan by the end of this year at the latest. The purchase price of the vaccine is not higher than the previous purchase price.

On the other hand, 5 million doses of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccine have been purchased from Novartis. In addition, 10 million doses of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccine have been purchased from the domestic vaccine manufacturer. The total of 15 million vaccine doses will be sufficient to cover 1/3 of the national population.As the number of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) cases increases, more challenges to contain the disease await.The public is once again urged to follow disease prevention measures announced by CECC, which include conducting self-health management, washing hands frequently, and measuring body temperature regularly.