AS ANXIETY over avian flu grows, entrepreneurs, spammers, quacks and snake-oil merchants are reaping the benefits. As well as drugs purporting to be Tamiflu, the internet offers assorted 鈥渋mmune-system boosters鈥�, 鈥渉erbal Tamiflu鈥� and various masks that supposedly protect against the virus.
Internet searches for 鈥渁vian flu鈥� or 鈥渂ird flu鈥� have increased dramatically in the past few months, rising 10-fold in the US, for example, and demand for Tamiflu has surged accordingly. In the UK, bids for a supposed course of 10 doses with a retail price of 拢16.36 reached over 拢100 on the internet auction site eBay last week before the firm removed Tamiflu from sale, citing company rules proscribing the sale of prescription drugs.
Even worse are the herbal remedies claiming to 鈥減rime鈥� the immune system to increase the effectiveness of Tamiflu, or to treat the symptoms of avian flu itself. 鈥淪how me the hard evidence for these claims and I might believe it,鈥� says Karl Nicholson, an expert in infectious disease at the University of Leicester, UK.
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