Ecuador's Health Ministry said on Thursday that it had bought 150,000 doses of antiviral drug Tamiflu in case of any possible outbreak of the deadly H1N1 flu virus.

"They are under order, safe and guaranteed," Ecuador's Health Minister, Caroline Chang, said in statement.

She said the first shipment of 5,000 doses would arrive on May 7. The Pan-American Health Organization also has a strategic reserve prepared for Ecuador that can arrive in the nation in 24 hours, she added.

Tamiflu has been successfully used to treat Influenza A/H1N1 patients in Mexico, where there are more than 300 suspected cases, of which 12 ended in the patient's death.

Chang said she was in touch with counterparts in neighboring Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, and others elsewhere in South America, ready to coordinate anti-flu action.

Ecuador has reported one suspected case, a woman who arrived on an international flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She is under isolation in a hospital in capital Quito, while a test had been carried out to see if she has the Influenza A/H1N1 flu.