Resistant bird flu

Filed in archive News on October 14, 2005

A girl has a case of bird flu that may be resistant to Tamiflu:

A Vietnamese patient has become partially resistant to the antiviral drug experts plan to use to tackle a human bird flu outbreak.

The UK government has ordered 14.6m doses of Tamiflu, but the Nature report suggests this may not be effective enough if an outbreak does happen.

At present, H5N1 flu strain poses only a limited threat to humans as it cannot spread easily between people.

But experts fear it soon might, and other drugs may be needed to combat it.