Friday, July 3, 2009
First Tamiflu-resistant swine flu case found in teenager
(10 mins ago)
A 16-year-old girl was found to be infected with a mutation of the swine flu virus that is resistant to the antiviral Tamiflu soon after arriving from San Francisco, the Department of Health said today.
It is the first such case in Hong Kong. Similar cases have been reported in Denmark and Japan.
The teenager was intercepted at the airport on June 11 and admitted to Queen Mary Hospital.
She opted not to be put on a course of Tamiflu before testing positive for the swine flu strain, which is known to be resistant to the antiviral.
She had mild symptoms and was discharged on June 18.
The case will be reported to the World Health Organization.
Danish health authorities have used Relenza, an alternative anti-flu medication, to successfully treat a female patient with the same strain.
The Japanese said a patient was found to be resistant to Tamiflu after being put on the drug since she was being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus around two weeks ago, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday.
The Osaka prefecture patient was recovering after having been given Relenza.
A spokeswoman for Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche, which makes Tamiflu, said the company had been informed of the case and described as ''normal'' such resistance to the drug.
''It is absolutely normal,'' she said, adding that ''0.4 percent of adults develop resistance'' to Tamiflu.
She said such cases do not indicate Tamiflu has become less effective against swine flu.
hat-tip Niman
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