should not be anything to worry about unduly

The manufacturers of the influenza medication Tamiflu have confirmed that a person in Denmark using the drug developed a resistance to it. The person who contracted the H1N1 swine flu virus has recovered from the illness but in his case the Tamiflu was not effective. Mr. David Reddy who heads the Roche Pandemic Taskforce explained that this was a normal development and should not be anything to worry about unduly. He said that it was usual for some people to develop resistance to influenza medication and that from a “scientific point of view” this was “no surprise”.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also came out in support of the Tamiflu drug saying that they still considered it to be effective against the swine flu. It is likely that the Danish patient developed a resistance to the Tamiflu because he had already been infected with the virus and was only given a low preventative dose.

Mr. David Reddy called this a case of “drug-induced resistance” which is extremely rare but does crop up every now and again in clinical testing.  It is estimated that about 0.4% of adults and about 4% of children develop resistance to Tamiflu. He also said that he was sure that the World Health Organisation would continue to recommend the use of Tamiflu to treat not only the swine influenza virus but also bird flu viruses.

Mr. Thomas Skinner, speaking on behalf of the CDC said that while similar cases like the one in Denmark could be of concern, at this point there wasn’t really much to worry about. It is possible however that sometime in the future the swine flu virus will become more resistant to Tamiflu.  Governments all around the world acting on recommendations from the WHO have huge stockpiles of Tamiflu and another effective influenza drug Relenza.