Word: flu
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This winter's most common flu strain is showing resistance to the frontline anti-flu treatment, new data shows. More than 10% of virus samples taken in Western Europe this winter were resistant to oseltamivir, better known as Tamiflu, according to figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Nearly 10% of the samples in Canada were resistant too, according to national authorities there, and the U.S. found nearly 7% resistance. The number of resistant strains are still small overall, but the superbugs aren't evenly distributed around the world: In Norway, a staggering...
...samples are from a strain of flu virus known as H1N1, a subtype of the influenza A virus: the regular run-of-the-mill seasonal flu, not the dreaded H5N1 avian flu that's prompted countries around the world to stockpile tens of millions of doses of Tamiflu. So how worried should people be about the prospect of drug-resistant strains of influenza A? Only modestly, says World Health Organization spokeswoman Sari Setiogi in Geneva. "Influenza A has been circulating for many years. It's not likely to cause a pandemic," she says. The patients who gave samples...
...most troubling thing about the ECDC study was the 75% resistance rate found in Norway. Like doctors elsewhere in Western Europe - and in the U.S. and Canada - Norwegians don't routinely prescribe Tamiflu to their patients. (Tamiflu is not a flu vaccine, but a post-exposure treatment that helps prevent the virus from spreading within the body, and reduces symptoms.) They just tell them to get some rest and drink plenty of fluids. It's a bit of a mystery, then, why so many of Norway's samples are drug-resistant. In theory, viruses should develop resistance to drugs...
...Holding AG, the Swiss holding company for Tamiflu manufacturer Hoffman-La Roche. Tamiflu sales dropped off sharply in the second half of 2007, Roche announced this week. But the main reason wasn't drug-resistance; it was simply a saturated market. As countries meet their targets for an anti-flu-pandemic Tamiflu stockpile, global demand for the drug is tapering off. For now, at least, those national stockpiles still offer an advantage: To date, the H5N1 bird flu shows only limited resistance to the drug...
...survey also found that despite clamorous public debate and high-profile media coverage about the first cancer vaccine, which protects against the human papilloma virus, only about 10% of young women reported receiving at least one dose of the three-dose vaccine. Even for the well-publicized flu vaccine, immunization rates are far below national targets. The CDC wants 90% coverage among at-risk Americans: adults over 50, people with certain existing conditions like heart or lung disease, dormitory or chronic-care-facility residents and workers, people who work or live with small children, and - especially - healthcare workers...