Scientists fear threat of growing 'super-flu'

Published on Monday 2 March 2009 21:21

A NEW drug-resistant flu may pose a serious threat to high-risk patients, scientists say.

The H1N1 "A" virus is a strain that causes common seasonal influenza outbreaks. But it carries an altered gene that makes it resistant to the anti-viral drug oseltamivir.

Marketed as Tamiflu, the drug is one of the first lines of defence used to protect people most vulnerable to flu.

Doctors reported on the emergence of Tamiflu-resistant flu in the Netherlands and the US. They fear it could threaten hospital patients with weakened immune systems.

Two teams of researchers highlighted the danger in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Dutch group led by Dr Jairo Gooskens, from Leiden University Medical Centre, said the rapid spread of resistant H1N1 flu strains had been observed since January 2008.

The US team from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, found 12 per cent of H1N1 viruses tested during the 2007-8 flu season were resistant to Tamiflu.