Experts have had high hopes that the flu drug Tamiflu would also help fight bird flu, but a new report may temper some of this enthusiasm.

Two children in Vietnam who died of bird flu had developed resistance to the flu drug Tamiflu. A new report detailing the events surrounding the children's deaths is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

These were the first reported cases of resistance to the drug in bird flu patients, and drug resistance was suspected of contributing to the death of at least one of the children.

Infectious disease specialist Anne Moscona, MD, of Cornell University says the development illustrates the need for governments, public health organizations, and researchers to redouble efforts to develop new drugs, vaccines, and public health strategies to deal with a possible bird flu pandemic.

I think this is a real warning, but I also feel strongly that this scary turn of events should be taken as an opportunity to do what needs to be done to organize for protecting people against influenza, she tells WebMD.

Early Treatment Didn't Help

One of the victims was a 13-year-old girl who died in January of this year. Her case was especially alarming, Moscona says, because she began treatment with a full dose of Tamiflu within a day of developing flu symptoms.

She initially got better following the initiation of treatment, but her symptoms quickly returned and she died less than a week later.

Moscona says the case suggests that bird flu patients may need higher doses and longer courses of Tamiflu treatment than given to patients with regular flu.

The most important lesson that I am taking away from this is that we really need to carefully strategize how we are going to use this drug and (similar drugs) in a pandemic situation, she says