The Swine Flu has Mutated

Tweet

Norway Flu Strain May Make Disease Worse; Wales Mutation Seen Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- European public health officials are investigating a handful of swine flu infections in Norway and Wales in which the virus mutated to a form that’s more severe or less sensitive to drug treatment. Five patients at a hospital in Wales contracted swine flu that resisted treatment with Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu, and three more infections are still being analyzed, the U.K. Health Protection Agency said today. Another mutation that may trigger a more severe infection was discovered in Norway among two patients who died of the flu and one who was severely ill with the disease out of 70 cases tested, the Oslo-based Institute of Public Health said. The mutated virus is more difficult to pass from person to person, according to David Mercer, acting head of the communicable diseases unit of the WHO’s European region, and Geir Stene-Larsen, the head of the Norwegian institute. “We take this development seriously, but the HPA currently considers that the risk to the general healthy population is low,” the U.K. Department of Health said in a statement about the Wales cases. “The Tamiflu-resistant virus has emerged in a group of particularly vulnerable individuals. These patients are known to be at increased risk of developing resistance to the drug.” There have been 57 cases of swine-flu infection that resist Tamiflu treatment, the WHO said today. While most developed in people already taking the drug, Tamiflu resistance may have spread among four patients in the same unit of a U.S. hospital in October and November. Those cases are still under investigation. Person to Person The infections in Wales may have passed from a person using Tamiflu to patients who haven’t taken the drug, raising the possibility that a hard-to-treat form of the disease may spread, according to the U.K. health agency. The patients in Wales all had blood diseases that weakened their immune systems, either because of the condition itself or the chemotherapy used to treat it, according to the agency. Resistance to Tamiflu is known to occur in patients with weak immune systems, it said. All the Welsh patients remain sensitive to GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Relenza, another antiviral treatment, the agency said. In Norway, the changes seen in the virus may allow it to penetrate deeper into the airways and cause more severe disease. “Based on what we know so far, it seems that the mutated virus does not circulate in the population, but might be a result of spontaneous changes which have occurred in these three patients,” Stene-Larsen said in the statement. “There is no indication that this change in the virus is of any importance for the effect of the vaccine or the effect of antiviral treatment.” Sensitive to Tamiflu The virus in Norway appears to be sensitive to Tamiflu and the vaccine now being offered in some areas to prevent swine flu infection, said Mercer of the WHO. “I don’t think it yet has the public health implications that we would wonder about,” Anne Schuchat, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference today about the Norway mutation. Similar mutations have been seen elsewhere and haven’t necessarily led to a more virulent disease, she said. Norway has had an estimated 700,000 cases of infections of H1N1, with 21 reported casualties. The institute estimates about 25 percent of the population of about 4.7 million to be at risk of contagion. “It’s most likely that the virus’ capability to mutate is not just specific to Norway, it will occur in other countries as well,” Stene-Larsen said in an interview on broadcaster TV2 today. Swine flu, also known as H1N1, has killed at least 6,770 people since the outbreak began in April, according to an estimate today from the World Health Organization. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated last week that the virus has infected 22 million people in the U.S. alone. The WHO no longer has an up-to-date count of global cases. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aEhvd7R2HL80# Can you believe this? Does this mean that the flu vaccinations are no longer any good? What do you think about this?