The nation's top medical officer has defended the use of antivirals to contain and combat the swine flu outbreak as the toll from the virus continues to rise.
A 57-year-old man suffering serious medical problems including diabetes died on Friday in Sydney after being diagnosed with the virus that same day, bringing the national swine flu toll to 11.
Cases of the virus in NSW have doubled in 10 days to more than 1,200 while, nationally, the number of people infected has climbed to 5,298 from 3,858 one weeks ago.
Australia's chief medical officer Professor Jim Bishop rejected suggestions that the antiviral Tamiflu had been overused.
"The antiviral policy has changed in different phases of the outbreak and, on expert advice, it was agreed that in 'contain' phase antivirals would be appropriate for treatment of in the identified cases and for the contacts of cases to reduce population spread and to dampen down the number of people who could be affected, whereas later in the course of the outbreak it is more appropriate to target those with severe disease and those most at risk of poor outcomes," Prof Bishop said.
"Extensive use of antivirals helped keep the infection contained for much longer than would otherwise be."
An recent online article in the Medical Journal of Australia claimed authorities jumped the gun in encouraging widespread use of Tamiflu and the scenario could lead to it being rendered ineffective against new strains of the virus in the future.
Authorities in Japan and Hong Kong have each reported a case of resistance to Tamiflu in a swine flu patient, following the first reported instance in Denmark last week.
In Japan, the patient was treated with another antiviral, Relenza, while in Hong Kong, the patient recovered without the use of any antivirals.