TAMIFLU resistance
These are the first cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu found in the United States 15-Aug-09 02:01 am Via Google News, a CP story by Helen Branswell: US swine flu patients on immunosuppressant drugs develop Tamiflu resistance. Excerpt:
Two cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu have been found in the United States, in leukemia patients who were highly immunosuppressed, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported Friday.
The cases, both from Seattle, are not linked. And there is no evidence either person transmitted drug-resistant pandemic viruses to either the health-care workers looking after them or their personal contacts.
But the findings underscore the reality that people who are highly immunocompromised and who contract the novel H1N1 virus could generate and spread drug resistant variants of the pandemic virus.
"That's a legitimate public health concern," said Dr. Frederick Hayden, an antiviral expert at the University of Virginia.
These are the first cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu found in the United States, though not the first to arise there. Last month it was reported that an California teenager quarantined with swine flu immediately after arriving in Hong Kong was found to be infected with a Tamiflu-resistant strain. She contracted the flu before leaving San Francisco, where she lives.
These new cases highlight the catch-22 of treating pandemic influenza in people who are severely immunosuppressed. These patients should be given flu drugs because their immune status leaves them highly vulnerable to severe illness.
But giving them the drugs raises at least the theoretical risk that they will develop and spread antiviral resistant strains of the novel H1N1 flu.
