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Maryland is prepared to handle the swine flu with antiviral drugs available for one-quarter of its residents, a Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesman said Thursday.

"Maryland is currently well-stocked with antivirals in order to handle whatever emergency may emerge from the H1N1 virus," said David Paulson, a DHMH spokesman. "In short, we'll have on hand and available a course of medication for every one out of four citizens in the state."

At the same time, Paulson criticized a 2008 report that said the state was unprepared, saying it relied on incomplete data.

The report, released in December by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health, awarded scores based on 10 indicators of preparedness, from having plans to distribute emergency vaccines to recent funding for public health services.

States earned a point if they had purchased 50 percent or more of their share of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu and Relenza, to stockpile for use in an influenza pandemic.

Federal planning guidelines call for states to be able to provide emergency antiviral drugs for 25 percent of their populations. In Maryland, that equals about 1.4 million residents.

Maryland had purchased 210,727 courses of the drugs — about 36 percent of its allocation — and was among 16 states that had not purchased more than 50 percent of its federally subsidized share by October 2008.

The federal government subsidy would allow Maryland to purchase 578,761 courses.

If the swine flu outbreak making global headlines this week were to reach pandemic proportions, Maryland's stock of antiviral medications is "worrisome," Serena Vinter, senior research associate with Trust for America's Health and the report's lead author, said Thursday.

Maryland joined Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Montana and Nebraska in receiving an overall preparedness score of 5 — the lowest score among the 50 states.

But, Paulson said, "The report was done in the middle of a process." He said the process involved states buying drugs through a federal subsidy program.

"We had applied for our full allotment for our state stockpile, but the purchase and delivery had not taken place," he said.

By Thursday, Maryland had 403,552 antiviral drug courses on hand — slightly less than half of the 821,458 courses in the federal stockpile for Maryland. A course is enough to provide one dose two times a day for five days.

With more drugs on the way, Maryland expected 670,000 courses by the weekend, Paulson said.

The report relied on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data on the number of courses that states purchased using taxpayer dollars, Vinter said.

"Under the national plan, not only is the state supposed to stockpile this 25 percent, but private companies, including health facilities, are supposed to be stockpiling," she said.

"We have no way of tracking whether private companies in Maryland are stockpiling drugs," she said.