Dutch Patient With Mutated Swine Flu Strain Dead
Officials in the Netherlands on Thursday announced the first death of a patient with a mutant strain of the swine flu virus, although they said the virus was not attributed to his death.
Harald Wychgel, spokesman for the Dutch Institute for Health and the Environment, told AFP that the virus had undergone minor changes to make it resistant to Tamiflu.
"He died not because the virus was resistant but because he was seriously ill and caught the Mexican (swine) flu," Wychgel said.
"We have carried out tests on the patient’s associates to see if the mutation had spread but we found no such indications", he said.
Another two patients in the Netherlands have been reported to have a strain of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu.
The report marks the fifth fatal case of mutated swine flu in Europe. Two other deaths have been reported in France and two more have been reported in Norway.
According to the World Health Organization, mutated swine flu strains have been reported in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States.
"The mutations appear to occur sporadically and spontaneously. To date, no links between the small number of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread," WHO said in a statement on November 20.
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