China says it has not sanctioned human medication to treat bird flu China Related Stories [22/06/200 [21/06/200 [21/06/200 Last Updated 21/06/2005, 18:54:07 China has denied media reports that it has been encouraging farmers to use a common human flu medication to treat poultry infected with the bird flu. The Washington Post has claimed farmers, with government backing, have been widely using the drug amantadine since the 1990's. Experts have warned such a practice would render the medication useless to humans by increasing resistance to the flu. But China's Ministry of Agriculture has denied the newspaper report, claiming it has never permitted the drug to be used on poultry. However, it has refused to say whether it is aware of farmers using amantadine, rather than culling infected poultry - which is the preferred world practice f

more...