Health Officials Warn Against 2 Flu Drugs
Posted on: Sunday, 15 January 2006, 00:00 CST
Federal health officials have advised U.S. doctors not to prescribe two commonly used influenza drugs because current strains of flu are resistant to them.
Removing amantadine and rimantadine from use leaves only two licensed influenza anti-virals available for fighting flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, the Washington Post reported Saturday. However, the newspaper said Relenza is largely unavailable because of supply shortages.
Resistance to amantadine and rimantadine has been accelerating in recent years, particularly in Asia, said the Post. Resistance to the drugs in the United States has increased significantly this year, for reasons that health officials say are unclear.
Two years ago, 2 percent of circulating flu viruses in the United States were resistant to the two drugs. Last flu season, that figure rose to 11 percent -- and so far this season, 91 percent of virus samples tested since Oct. 1 were resistant, said Nancy J. Cox, head of the influenza branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC made the announcement Friday in what the Post characterized as an urgently called news conference.
We really wanted to let clinicians know so they could treat their patients appropriately, Cox said.
Source: United Press International
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