HIGH STREET chemists are being trained to give advice to concerned members of the public about bird flu.

A travel information service for holidaymakers visiting the Far East and countries where the H5N1 virus has been confirmed is also to be set up by the end of next month.

Boots, which has 1,400 branches in Britain, is behind both moves. Other chains and independent chemists are expected to follow.

The company has acted after staff reported that customers were seeking advice about bird flu, with almost 30,000 inquiries made since the run-up to Christmas. Some people have even placed orders for face masks, although Boots’s advice is that these will not protect against the virus.

Others customers have wanted to know, for instance, whether it is safe for their children to feed ducks in parks.

Many are also concerned about eating chicken; there is no danger if the meat is thoroughly cooked.

Boots already supplies the anti-viral drug Tamiflu on prescription. The details of the advice that Boots’s 8,000 pharmacists will be giving are yet to be finalised. A panel of experts, including Professor John Oxford, a leading virologist, Dr Jane Zuckermann, a travel and tropical disease expert, and senior civil servants at the Department of Health are working on it.

The Foreign Office is also reviewing its travel advice.

In the event that the bird flu strain mutates, causing a human pandemic, the Government has already said that it will need chemists to hand out flu treatments.

Boots, like many companies, has drawn up a contingency plan to ensure that its own business can cope with staff illness in event of an epidemic.

The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 25 per cent of Britons could be affected. Chemists will have a key role in diagnosing, treating and advising the public.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge