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Don't Rush to Buy Bird Flu Drugs on Web, Doctors Warn

Posted on: Saturday, 13 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

A woman wears a mask to handle poultry in the Omsk region of Siberia, where Asian bird flu has now spread Picture: AFP/ Getty Images

DOCTORS urged the public yesterday not to "panic buy" medication against an expected flu pandemic.

The spread of bird flu across south-east Asia has led to fears an epidemic will strike worldwide - killing up to 50,000 people in Scotland alone.

To prepare for the worst, governments are buying up Tamiflu - the only drug known to be effective against avian flu in humans.

More than 1.2 million doses of the anti-viral treatment are being stockpiled in Scotland to be given to key workers and the vulnerable while scientists scramble to develop a vaccine.

But dozens of sites have already sprung up on the internet offering the prescription-only drug to anyone willing to fill in a form. Such purchases are illegal under UK law.

Bird flu has killed 61 people in Asia, and spread as far as Siberia in birds. The fear is that the virus could eventually mutate into a form that can pass from human to human.

Professor Hugh Pennington, president of the Society for General Microbiology and emeritus professor at Aberdeen University, said he could understand why people might be tempted to buy the drugs.

He said: "People are buying it because there has been so much alarm about this, which is no doubt justified. If the virus is able to go from person to person - as has been suggested - and if it is as nasty as the few cases infected by birds were, we are in deep, deep trouble.

"The worst-case scenario is something worse than the 1918 worldwide pandemic - which killed 40 million people. So you can understand why people are taking precautions."

But Prof Pennington was confident the government's contingency plans were adequate, and advised against buying the drug online. He said: "My position would be that you should not take it without medical advice."

Tamiflu costs up to GBP 6.50 for a 12-hour dose, but Prof Pennington warned that people could be wasting their money. He said the drug would only work if taken at the right time.

"If you give it out like sweeties a lot of people will take it unnecessarily," he said.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it was aware of prescription-only drugs being sold on the internet. A spokesman said anyone running an internet site based in the UK selling the drug without proper prescriptions faced a fine and up to two years' jail.

Roche, the only company to officially manufacture Tamiflu, does not sell the drug on the internet. A spokesman said the company would report any sites selling the drugs illegally.

Source: Scotsman, The

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