The latest outbreak of bird flu in Indonesia prompted the World Health Organization on Saturday to put the maker of Tamiflu on alert to prepare the global stockpile of the anti-viral drug.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson also said the agency has "no intention" of shipping the stockpile it wants the Swiss manufacturer Roche Holding AG to prepare. 

The UN health agency has asked the maker of the anti-bird flu drug Tamiflu to ready the global stockpile after human-to-human transmission was suspected in a family cluster in Indonesia.
(Michael Probst/Associated Press)

"We see this as a practice run," he told the Associated Press.

Aim of 400 million courses of treatment

Roche has already given WHO five million courses of treatment, and with the help of global partners, the company promises to be producing 400 million courses a year by 2007.

Human-to-human transmission was suspected but not confirmed this week in a family cluster in a remote village on the island of Sumatra.

Six of the seven members of an extended Indonesian family who caught bird flu have died, the most recent on Monday.

An eighth family member who died was buried before tests could be done, but she was considered to be among those infected with bird flu.

The Geneva-based UN agency said the outbreak in the village of Kubu Sembilang was the most significant development yet in the spread of the virus.

Concern about human-to-human contact

WHO said it was concerned about the size of the cluster and confusion over whether its transmission was human-to-human or caused by people coming into contact with infected poultry.

Scientists said there was no indication of more widespread human-to-human transmission.

The WHO has stressed the virus has not mutated into a version easily passed between people or shown signs of spreading outside the family.

World Health Organization officials so far have confirmed 36 human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia, out of 124 reported worldwide since late 2003.