Flu jab warning as new strain emerges

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 20:00

DOCTORS urged people at risk of contracting swine flu to get vaccinated against the virus after five people were diagnosed with a strain resistant to Tamiflu.

The advice came from Dr Roland Salmon, director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre at the National Public Health Service for Wales. He was speaking after it was announced that five patients at University Hospital, Cardiff, have been diagnosed with a strain resistant to the antiviral drug.

Dr Salmon said: "Vaccination is the most effective tool we have in preventing swine flu, so I urge people identified as being at risk to look out for their invitation to be vaccinated."

More than three million healthy children under five across the UK are also to be offered the swine flu jab, it was announced earlier last week.

The Tamiflu-resistant strain will become much more common as the virus mutates, according to a flu expert.

Professor Nigel Dimmock, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said: "If you use Tamiflu at the level they are using it resistance occurs."