The World Health Organisation (WHO) has today moved to dampen speculation that the swine flu virus has developed a broad resistance to the Tamiflu medicine that is being used worldwide to treat the condition.
Maria Teresa Cerqueira, chief of the US-Mexico border office for the WHO, said today there was no evidence of viral resistance near the US-Mexico border and that she had no information about drug-evading cases of the new H1N1 flu strain.
Yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported that a Tamiflu-resistant strain had emerged around the border area in El Paso and near McAllen, Texas, citing Ms Cerqueira.
"I said there was concern, and we recommended surveillance for this possibility as people on the border often go back and forth for medical care and to buy medicines, but I had no information on any cases," Ms Cerqueira said in a statement. "It is an unfortunate misinterpretation that needs to be clarified."
According to the HSE, the State has sufficient stocks of the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and of zanamivir (Relenza) to treat 55 per cent of the population. The agency says it has one million packs of Tamiflu for adults, Tamiflu in a paediatric preparation form to treat 63,000 children, and 70,000 packs of Relenza for adults.
Last week, the HSE advised GPs to stop administering Tamiflu as a preventive drug and said the drug should now only by administered to people with severe symptoms or chronic underlying illnesses.
Tamiflu, manufactured by Roche Holding, is the main medication used to treat influenza, including the pandemic strain. Studies have shown it can lessen the symptoms and duration of the disease if taken within 48 hours of the onset of the illness. Resistance occurs in about 0.4 per cent of infections treated
Isolated cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu have been reported in Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Denmark. A Roche spokeswoman aid it was not surprising to see such cases as more people are being infected and more people are being treated.
Swine flu had infected more than 130,000 people and caused more than 800 deaths globally as of July 27th, according to the WHO.
Additional reporting Bloomberg