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R/£ Teen's flu causes concern
July 08, 2009 Edition 1
ATLANTA: US health officials are stepping up testing of swine flu cases for Tamiflu resistance, now that an American has come down with a resistant strain.
A teenager in California was diagnosed with swine flu last month after arriving in Hong Kong on June 11, and has since recovered.
The 16-year-old is a San Francisco resident and was probably infected in the United States, health officials said yesterday.
Her illness was mild, but noteworthy. She's just the third person in the world to be diagnosed with a strain resistant to Tamiflu, the primary pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus.
The other two resistant cases - patients in Denmark and Japan - had been taking Tamiflu as a preventive measure after coming into contact with someone with swine flu. The Californian girl had not taken Tamiflu, meaning she was apparently infected by an already-circulating resistant strain before she travelled to Hong Kong.
"It's a little more concerning than the two previous cases," said Dr Tim Uyeki of the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hong Kong health officials, known as aggressive about trying to detect and isolate swine flu cases, detected the resistant strain in the girl.
Until an effective vaccine is developed, the drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are considered the best defence against the swine flu virus, which has caused nearly 34 000 reported illness in the United States, including at least 170 deaths. - Sapa-AP
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