Posted on 09/30/2006 5:42:12 PM PDT by blam
Threat of 'superflu' rampage as mutant viruses resist drugs
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 01/10/2006)
The drive to fight deadly flu pandemics with special antiviral drugs risks creating an untreatable "superflu", the head of -Britain's public health watchdog has warned.
Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, warned that the widespread use of antiviral drugs to treat illnesses, including bird flu and seasonal influenza, is causing- viruses to mutate into drug-resistant- forms.
He claimed that drug-resistant viruses now represented as big a threat to public health as antibiotic-resistant superbug bacteria, such as MRSA. His comments come as bird experts were once again placed on alert for cases of avian flu returning to Britain with migrating birds.
The autumn migration of waterfowl triggered the spread of the deadly H5N1 virus into western Europe and Britain for the first time last year, as the disease spread rapidly in wild birds trying to escape the cold weather. A dead swan discovered in Fife, Scotland, in April this year, was the only bird flu case to be found in a wild bird in Britain.
Officials at the Department of Health confirmed that, last week, it received the last of its stockpile of 14.6 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which will be used if bird flu mutates into a human flu pandemic.
But Sir William, a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, fears that the drug will be useless if the flu virus develops resistance to it during the mass medication that would be necessary in a pandemic.
"With pandemic flu, once it develops antiviral resistance in one area, it is likely to spread quickly," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "One of our concerns is that we get Tamiflu-resistant strains emerging.
"Unfortunately, it is unknown if Tamiflu will be effective when pandemic flu emerges and how long it will be effective for. Anti-viral resistance is becoming as big a problem as antibiotic resistance." Sir William stressed, however, that it was better to have stocks of antiviral drugs that helped patients fight non-resistant flu strains than no drugs at all to protect the population.
Meanwhile, last night, bird experts warned that the spectre of bird flu infecting flocks in Britain would return this winter, as ducks and swans migrated south over the coming months.
The H5N1 virus spread rapidly through bird flocks in 15 European countries, including Turkey, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Denmark, after last year's winter migration. Cold weather from the east forced the birds to move west as they sought food.
"The risk from bird flu is likely to be as great this year as it was, at its height, last year," said Dr Bob McCracken, of the British Veterinary Association. "We have to ensure that wild birds arriving in the UK are being monitored."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also launched a revised strategy to screen migrating wild birds for bird flu, including stepping up sampling for the disease in areas that have high numbers of migrating waterfowl. It has also placed orders for 10 million doses of avian influenza vaccine for poultry.
Health officials fear that if the H5N1 virus combines with human flu it could create a new strain that would cause a pandemic. Government predictions suggested that up to 700,000 people could die in such an outbreak.
Concerns that a pandemic flu virus might develop resistance to Tamiflu emerged last year, after reports from Vietnam that H5N1 virus was showing signs of decreased sensitivity to the drug.
Figures from the World Health Organisation also show that approximately 0.4 per cent of adult seasonal flu cases and 5 per cent of child cases treated with Tamiflu have already developed immunity to the drug.
Prof Jeremy Farrar, an expert on flu virus drug resistance at Oxford University, said it was essential that more flu drugs were developed if doctors were to fight a pandemic.
"We need more than one or two drugs available so we can combine them to prevent resistance, or to have alternatives if resistance develops to the first-line therapy," he said.
A spokesman for Roche, Tamiflu's maker said resistance to the drug was "extremely rare".
We're all gonna die again?
An example of viruses celebrating diversity
Guess what. This Hn51 variant already shrugs off every single anti-viral drug that's been thrown at it.
According to my doctor even very aggressive respirator therapy is useless.
L
EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!
Lifted right from a 1970's newspaper.
Life is just this way. One side gets better weapons, the other side gets better defenses, and then more agressive weapons. It's true in every aspect of nature. This will continue on until death.
HN51 has been in the US for 4 decades now.
And I thought the Y2K thing was nutty....
L
I was in Southeast Asia and recall reading that Tamiflu had little impact on the disease -- perhaps the resistance develops extremely quickly. Thus far, it doesn't seem all that easy to catch. Hope it stays that way. The actual disease is a very nasty way to go.
When I try to explain the problem they just smile and say 'no comprendo'.
Damn, I hate reading stuff like this while congested and dealing w/ a sore throat...
We need not panic. We already know what will happen - see post # 2. Remain calm and die when it is your turn. No cutting in line, please.
I died last season from H5N1 and I am NOT dieing again this season. /S
IF,...Could,...might,...believe it when I see it.
Trap a few raccoons or foxes and let 'em loose in their backyard. they will comprendo that!
Excuse me, but aren't most viruses (viri?) drug resistant? People seem to forget that antibiotics are for bacterial infections, not viral infections. For instance, there are anti-viral drugs that help surpress outbreaks of the herpes virus, but it never cures it.
Mark
You are right. Antibiotics only fight bacteria. There are many forms of bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, namely MRSA and ORSA.
Anti-virals can help with some viruses. Viruses like herpes cannot be gotten rid of. Some viruses can be gotten rid of, like your typical cold.
And Bush is going to make sure there is no flu vaccine available for senior citizens in the US.
That didn't stop the media from their usual hyperbole. Old folks standing out in the miserable rainy weather waiting for free flu shots.
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH IDIOTS ABOUND.
Helped my hubby over his nasty cold in record time. We both take it every single day.
Check it out on google.
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006
As millions of Americans prepare to line up for their annual flu shots, a leading expert on the feared strain of avian influenza told researchers in San Francisco that the ordinary vaccine might save lives if the bird disease ever starts spreading among humans.
Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis told delegates at a science conference that 50 percent of a small group of laboratory mice injected with a component of the annual flu vaccines survived exposure to a bird flu strain that ordinarily would have killed all of them.
"When the vaccine becomes available,'' said Webster, "if you are concerned about H5N1, take it.''
(click on the title for the rest of the article)
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