Drug-resistant flu may have spread
Two girls at camp show same strain
ATLANTA - Health officials are reporting what might be the first instance of a Tamiflu-resistant swine flu virus spreading from one person to another.
It happened in July at a camp in western North Carolina, where two teenage girls sharing a cabin were diagnosed with the same drug-resistant strain of swine flu.
Tamiflu is one of two flu medicines that help against swine flu, and health officials have been closely watching for signs that the virus is mutating, making the drugs ineffective.
Meanwhile, one dose of the new swine flu vaccine looks strong enough to protect adults, and can spark protection within 10 days of the shot, Australian and US researchers said yesterday. Australian shot maker CSL Ltd. published results of a study that found between 75 percent and 96 percent of vaccinated people should be protected with one dose - remarkable considering scientists thought it would take two doses.
US data to be released today confirm those findings, and show the protection starts rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said.
This week Roche Holding AG, the maker of Tamiflu, said it is aware of 13 cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu around the world, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted nine in the United States. But all the others were single cases. In this instance, there seemed to be a spread.
“That was the concerning thing about these cases,’’ said Dr. Zack Moore, a respiratory disease epidemiologist for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
The virus might have spread from one girl to the other, or it is possible that the girls got it from another camper. It is also possible that they each developed a resistant strain independently, but that is unlikely, Moore added.
Both girls had been given Tamiflu before they got sick - as a preventive measure - after an outbreak of swine flu at the camp. They were among more than 600 campers and camp staff treated, which might have been part of the problem: Overuse of medicines can contribute to viruses becoming drug resistant.
