Category Archives: Flu

Flu

Australia reports first Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 case

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Australia reports first Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 case

The first Australian case of swine flu resistant to Roche Holding AG’s antiviral drug Tamiflu was confirmed by the Western Australia state government on Friday.

“The 38-year-old Perth man, who has a weakened immune system, initially responded to the drug but developed a resistant strain of the virus when his illness relapsed,” the state’s Department of Health said in a statement.

There have been 13 cases of Tamiflu-resistant infections around the world, the statement said.

A Roche executive said on Monday that isolated cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 pandemic flu were to be expected, in line with what has been seen in clinical studies.

“There is no evidence that the virus has spread to other people. None of the patient’s family or hospital staff caring for him have contracted the virus, and he has not been in contact with the wider community,” said the state’s Chief Health Officer Tarun Weeramanthri, adding that the case was a rare and isolated one.

The man remained in a critical condition in intensive care.

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Tamiflu saves lives of severely ill flu patients

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Tamiflu saves lives of severely ill flu patients

Roche AG’s antiviral drug Tamiflu helped prevent deaths from seasonal flu in severely ill patients who had chronic underlying health problems, Chinese researchers said on Sunday.

A study of 760 older, severely ill patients in Hong Kong found that Roche and Gilead Sciences Inc’s drug Tamiflu cut the rate of death by 37 percent.

More than 60 percent of patients in the study had underlying chronic illnesses, and 78 percent had been hospitalized with complications from seasonal flu.

The study, done by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco, suggests the drug can help save the lives of seriously ill flu patients, Dr David Reddy, who leads Roche’s pandemic flu task force, said in a telephone briefing.

Known generically as oseltamivir, Tamiflu is one of two antiviral drugs that work well against H1N1 swine flu.

The study took place in two hospitals in Hong Kong between 2007 and 2008. About half the patients in the study got Tamiflu and half got no treatment. Death rates were about the same at both hospitals.

“In this study, Tamiflu improved the survival rate by reducing the rate of death by 37 percent in this high-risk group of patients with severe seasonal flu compared to no treatment,” Reddy said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that the very old and people with chronic medical conditions should be treated with antiviral drugs — either Tamiflu or GlaxoSmithKline and Biota’s Relenza — when they have flu-like symptoms.

Health officials caution against using either drug in otherwise healthy people who have moderate or mild flu symptoms, however, because of the fear of resistance. Influenza viruses very quickly change to put up a strong defense against antiviral drugs. Last year the seasonal H1N1 virus developed strong resistance to Tamiflu. Two older flu drugs, amantadine and rimantadine, now have very little effect against influenza viruses.

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H1N1 flu causes unusual damage to lungs: studies

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H1N1 flu causes unusual damage to lungs: studies

The new pandemic H1N1 flu may cause blood clots and other unusual damage in the lungs and doctors need to be on the lookout, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Two studies published in the American Journal of Roentgenology show the need to check X-rays and CT scans for unusual features, and also point out swine flu can be tricky to diagnose in some of the sickest patients.

H1N1 flu is causing a pandemic, and while it is not particularly deadly, it is sickening many younger adults and older children who usually escape the worst effects of seasonal flu.

“It is therefore essential that clinicians be able to recognize possible cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza in high-risk groups so that they order the appropriate diagnostic tests, begin specific antiviral therapy, and prepare to provide intensive supportive measures as needed,” Dr. Daniel Mollura of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland and colleagues wrote.

One middle-aged man who died was not diagnosed until after death, but unusual findings on his X-rays may be able to help doctors save other, similar patients.

Mollura’s team found irregularities called ground-glass opacities in the patient’s lungs using a CT scan. Although the patient was severely ill and had a fever, he tested negative for flu and doctors did not treat him for it.

The man died five days after he went into the hospital and the autopsy confirmed he had swine flu. The lung lesions seen on his CT scan matched lung damage done by the virus, Mollura and colleagues said.

In another study in the same journal, CT scans of patients with severe cases of swine flu showed many had pulmonary emboli, which block the arteries in the lungs, a team at the University of Michigan found.

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