Friday, January 9, 2009

New Flu resistant to Tamiflu

This sort of stuff didn't use to bother me. Is it growing old or having children that makes me anxious at this type of news?

Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.

“It’s quite shocking,” said Dr. Kent A. Sepkowitz, director of infection control at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “We’ve never lost an antimicrobial this fast. It blew me away.”

The single mutation that creates Tamiflu resistance appears to be spontaneous, and not a reaction to overuse of the drug. It may have occurred in Asia, and it was widespread in Europe last year.

1 comment:

Lindsay said...

Hi Shannon,
Andrea told me that you would like to be invited to my blog. I'm sorry I didn't add you. I made it private after a weird comment with no thought prior. If you send me your email I will invite you. lindsaysells@sbcglobal.net