A small but significant percentage of the main influenza virus causing illness this winter in Europe, Canada and the US has a mutation that makes it resistant to the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, the WHO said on Wednesday.
Scientists said they were surprised by the finding because they had believed that mutations of this type generally made the virus less potent and less easily spread among people. The predominant influenza virus circulating this winter is influenza A/H1N1.
The Tamiflu-resistant form of the virus, known as influenza A(H1N1 H274Y), has been found with varying frequency in various areas of four European countries, Canada and the US.
There are no immediate plans to recommend changes in the use of Tamiflu, which is also known as oseltamivir, officials from WHO and the US said in interviews, because the incidence of the mutant virus is still small. Tamiflu is one of the antiviral drugs used to treat influenza in its early stages.
Nevertheless, officials from WHO, a UN agency, said they were troubled by the discovery.
"Clearly, this is of global concern, but it is not a global problem now," Dr Frederick Hayden, an influenza expert at the organization, said in a telephone interview.
The standard influenza vaccine still protects against the mutant virus, said Hayden and Alicia Fry, an influenza epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Norwegian epidemiologists first called attention to the problem last week when they reported that the mutation was present in 12 of 16 of viruses isolated in that country from patients in the earliest part of the influenza season, in November and December.
The Norwegian rate was the highest among the four European countries -- Britain, Denmark, France and Norway -- that reported the mutant virus. There was no evidence that the 12 cases in Norway were linked.
Overall, the mutant form was found in 19 of the viruses isolated from 148 patients or 13 percent, in a monitoring system that the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control runs in 10 European countries.
The overall percentage fell to 5 if Norway was excluded.
In the US, the Tamiflu-resistant strain was found in 9 of 237, or 3.8 percent of patients from whom influenza type A and B viruses were isolated this winter, and all 9 were in the A(H1N1) category, making them 6.7 percent of those 135 cases, Fry, said in a telephone interview.
The WHO conducted a teleconference on Tuesday to collect information from experts in a number of countries. The participants agreed that continued close monitoring was needed to collect information on a larger number of patients to determine the frequency, transmission and distribution of the mutant strain as well as its virulence, Hayden said.
Scientists also want to learn how the resistance developed. It is unlikely to have been from use of Tamiflu, Hayden said, in part because no cases have been detected in Japan, where the drug is often used in treatment.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not