A spate of news stories going around the world (and reported by Ukmedix) all say that the Tamiflu drug alone may not be effective enough to beat the H5N1 bird flu virus and that other drugs may be needed to beat the virus. The stories also say that the bird flu virus is becoming increasing resistant to the Tamiflu drug as time goes by.

The reports also commented on the fact that the medical authorities of the UK had been criticised for relying only Tamiflu for their anti viral protection and that they should stock up with other flu drugs like Relenza to be safer and more prepared.

Roche who make Tamiflu have responded to the claims that Tamiflu is becoming less effective by saying that there was no evidence of this and anyway there had been no new incidences of bird flu since March 2005.

A spokesman for Roche that is based in Switzerland said that the speculation was erroneous and incorrect and that there was no clinical or scientific evidence to prove this. The spokesman also said that all worldwide governments could be confident that the Tamiflu flu drug would be the best form of defence in the event of a human outbreak of bird flu and governments would be wise to stock the drug. Tamiflu still remains the number one recommendation by the World Health Organisation for the curing of the H5N1 virus in humans and it has also shown to be worthwhile in the few human cases that were reported in the Far East.

Tamiflu has been stockpiled by hundreds of nations worldwide and also by the World Health Organisation so that it can be ready to fly it out to any part of the world that urgently needs it. The UK has made Tamiflu an integral part of its bird flu pandemic plans.