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Tamiflu-Resistant Swine Flu Cases Growing

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 August 2009, 13:40 CDT

A strain of swine flu that has proven resistant to the Tamiflu treatment claimed more lives on Tuesday, with Vietnam reporting its first fatal case, AFP reported.

Health officials in India and South Africa both reported their first deadly cases of the A(H1N1) virus late Monday.

A Tamiflu-resistant mutation of A(H1N1) had been found around the US-Mexico border in El Paso and close to McAllen, Texas, according to Maria Teresa Cerqueira, head of the Pan-American Health Organization office in La Jolla, California.

Experts gathered there on Monday to discuss responses to the outbreak, and warned that overuse of antivirals like Tamiflu may be leading to resistant strains.

Cerqueira noted that Tamiflu is sold with a prescription the United States, but in Mexico and Canada it is sold freely and taken at the first sneeze.

“Then, when it is really needed, it doesn't work,” she said.

Currently, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan have all reported cases of A(H1N1) that were resistant to the anti-viral medicine.

Officials in Vietnam reported the country's first swine flu fatality after a 29-year-old woman died from the disease in the southern coastal province of Khanh Hoa. The Vietnamese health ministry said nearly 1,000 people have been reported infected in Vietnam and about 500 of those are receiving hospital treatment.

Authorities in South Africa said a 22-year-old student at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town had died after contracting the virus, while in India a 14-year-old girl died in the western city of Pune.

South Africa is considered particularly at risk because it contains the world's highest number of HIV/AIDS-affected people -- nearly 19 percent of a 49-million-person population.

Since the first South African swine flu case was reported on June 14, the country’s caseload has increased fourfold.

Government officials in India said that 2,479 people had been tested for swine flu, with 558 testing positive for H1N1.

Indian health officials cited a combination of social, climatic and meteorological factors like high temperatures and humidity as deterrents that would likely lower the risk of transmission in the area.

Public events around the world have been delayed due to the virus.

Football fans in Russia were warned to stay away from the national team's World Cup qualifying tie with Wales in Cardiff on September 9, according to the state health agency.

The head of Russia's state health agency Gennady Onishchenko told local news agencies it would be an “extremely unnecessary and inappropriate undertaking” at a time of a flu epidemic.

"The expressions of emotion on the part of football fans involving intense shouting could lead to the airborne transmission of the flu virus," Onishchenko said.

With just 55 confirmed cases to-date, Russia has been relatively unscathed by the pandemic.

State media in China said on Tuesday that the government decided to cancel summer camps in affected areas after recent outbreaks sickened children, parents and teachers.

The China Daily reported that the health ministry said student activities such as summer camps should be held only when necessary, and in areas with a high incidence of A(H1N1), they should not go ahead at all.

The paper reported that China had a total of 2,152 cases of swine flu, but no deaths so far.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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