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The chief medical officer for the government, Sir Liam Donaldson, has warned the public not to panic-buy anti-viral drugs to treat swine flu on the internet. As well as reminding the population that the NHS has stockpiled large amounts of the drug Tamiflu, he warned that many companies were selling counterfeit versions of the medication.

The instructions come as the government admitted that the virus was no longer containable. It is now expected that within a month as many as 100,000 new cases could be diagnosed each day. Andy Burnham, the health secretary, said the NHS had now moved to ‘treatment phase’ in dealing with the pandemic. This means that schools will no longer close as a matter of course when a case is diagnosed and anti-viral medications will not routinely be given as a preventative measure when someone comes into contact with the virus.

Some experts have predicted that this will lead people to seek the medication from online pharmacies. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Director of Policy David Pruce warned that internet sites could be based anywhere in the world and added that counterfeiters had become so good at copying the medication it was impossible to tell the fakes from the real thing.

As a guideline, Tamiflu and Relenza are both prescription-only medications. You should only be able to buy the drugs with a prescription, and if online clinics claim that they can provide you with this, check the registration details of the prescribing doctor. Then check that the pharmacy is registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.