HEALTH bosses are warning people not to attempt to buy a "cure" to bird flu over the Internet.

In the past few months fears of an avian flu pandemic have grown, with health agencies and the police practising emergency procedures.

One drug, Tamiflu, has been billed as the only drug that can beat the virus, but is only available by prescription in the UK. The only company to officially make it does not sell it on the web.

The Department of Health has been stockpiling the drug. However, in recent months, foreign websites have offered Tamiflu for sale.

In some cases, the companies have sent bulk e-mails using scare tactics to try to sell the drugs.

There are fears the drugs are counterfeit and that the websites could be involved in fraud. The drug is only effective with some people and has to be administered soon after the flu is contracted.

Yesterday, Sara Coakley, of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which licenses drugs, said: "You cannot buy Tamiflu; you have to get it on prescription.

"With these websites, you do not know where the drug is coming from, there is no guarantee it is what it says it is, there is no guarantee it is effective or if it has been stored right."

The only people who have contracted bird flu so far are people who have worked with poultry in the Far East, and the illness in its current form cannot be passed from human to human.

However, the fear is the flu will mutate and become highly infectious.