You won't read about this in the paper, but I heard this story first hand from a friend who is involved at the very high levels.
As you may know, the disease that spreads after a Tsunami will likely claim more lives that the initial disaster. Infectious diseases, primarily due to gram- bacteria will cause widespread suffering and death. These bacteria are very effectively neutralized using a group of antibiotics called quinolones. Getting the proper antibiotics to the disaster scene quickly is of critical importance.
A large U.S. pharmaceutical company was contacted regarding the crisis and amazingly reported that they had 300,000 doses of quinolones that were less than a year past the expiration date and they could have them on a plane headed to Southeast Asia within 24 hours.
No charge.
The U.S. State department was contacted in order to provide emergency clearance for the export. After a lengthy delay, the State Department respectfully declined the pharaceutical companies offer. The reason? The negative public opinion that might be generated if the U.S. were to send
expired medications to disaster victims would be too great.
Hard to imagine, but as I said this comes from a high placed source.
