Vietnam Girl Developed Drug Resistant Flu

Researchers have discovered that bird flu found in a Vietnamese girl is resistant to the most popular vaccine.

The Washington Post reports that the 14-year-old girl was found with three strains of the H5N1 bird flu, one that wasn’t resistant, one that was partially resistant and one fully resistant to Tamiflu.

Q. Mai Le of Vietnam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, along with 15 other scientists, authored the report in next week’s issue of Nature.

The girl became sick in February while she was taking care of her ailing brother.

She was given a low dose of Tamiflu and then a higher dose. She eventually recovered from the bird flu.

Another vaccine, Relenza, is still more effective against the virus.

There are 2.3 million doses of Tamiflu and 83,000 doses of Relenza in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.

Anne Moscona of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University said there is good evidence still that Tamiflu will work.

It is hard to pass from human to human but animals, especially birds, have been carrying it and passing it on.