Spain's defense minister visits swine flu hospital

(AP) — MADRID - Spain's defense minister is visiting a hospital where 11 members of a military academy suffering from swine flu are receiving treatment and 61 others are under observation.

Carme Chacon and other military and health officials visited Gomez Ulla hospital Saturday after ordering an investigation into how schoolchildren were allowed to visit the Hoyo de Manzanares academy on the outskirts of Madrid on a field trip earlier this week despite suspicions of a swine flu outbreak at the establishment.
Around 500 cadets and staff at the academy have been ordered to remain indoors for a week to avoid a possible spread of the flu virus.
There have been 126 cases of swine flu in Spain, the Health Ministry said in a statement published on its Web site Friday.

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Tamiflu might not work against swine flu, Government's own scientists warn

By David Rose
Last updated at 10:45 PM on 23rd May 2009
story from  www.dailymail.co.uk

Swine flu could soon become resistant to Tamiflu, the drug being stockpiled to fight it, say Government scientists. A strain of seasonal flu closely related to the swine virus has already mutated so that Tamiflu is virtually useless against it. But the Government is spending more than £100million to bring Britain’s stockpile of Tamiflu up to 50million doses – enough for 80 per cent of the population. 

Dr Steve Gamblin, the joint head of molecular structure at the National Institute for Medical Research, told The Mail on Sunday that the mutation renders Tamiflu about 250 times less effective than it should be.

‘Our research suggests that if Tamiflu is used extensively, mutant swine flu viruses that are resistant to the drug may well arise,’ said Dr Gamblin.

‘Instead of relying on Tamiflu alone, it would be better to use a cocktail of Tamiflu and Relenza,’ – another anti-viral drug to which, so far, flu viruses have not developed resistance.

However, the Government has stockpiled only about ten million doses of Relenza and it is more difficult to take. While Tamiflu can be swallowed as a pill at home, Relenza is a powder that must be administered with an inhaler, normally under medical supervision.
The NIMR in Mill Hill, North London, is one of four World Health Organisation centres spearheading research into developing a swine flu vaccine. But a Health Department spokesman admitted that this is unlikely to be available in large quantities until the end of December. If swine flu starts to spread rapidly during the autumn, Tamiflu and Relenza will be the only lines of defence.

Because swine flu is a new strain no one has inbuilt immunity, which increases the risk of a pandemic. Two more cases were confirmed in Britain yesterday, bringing the total to 122. Dr John McCauley, one of three flu research directors at the NIMR, said the timing of the start of the annual flu season will be critical. He said that in 1918, when a pandemic killed more than 50million worldwide, the virus responsible first appeared in the northern hemisphere in spring, just as swine flu has, then ‘disappeared’ for the summer.
In recent years, seasonal flu has not started to spread widely until December or January. But in 1918, the virus re-emerged in September.

‘If swine flu comes back in December, it probably won’t be too bad,’ said Dr McCauley. ‘Much earlier, and we could be in trouble.’ So far, research suggests that swine flu is not exceptionally virulent. According to the WHO, it is likely to kill about 0.4 per cent of those who get it. However, if it did quickly infect millions of people, the death toll would be substantial, while the strain on the health service and the wider economy would be immense.

Both swine flu and the Tamiflu-resistant seasonal flu are descendants of the 1918 pandemic virus, and are classified as H1N1 viruses because of the distinctive proteins that form their coating.

Tamiflu works by attacking the N1 protein. If taken early, it ensures that symptoms are mild and reduces the chance of a victim giving the illness to someone else. But according to Dr Gamblin, it takes only a ‘point mutation’ – a change to a single amino acid in a virus’s DNA – to render Tamiflu ineffective. By the winter of 2007-08, he and his colleagues had identified this problem, while their hopes that the mutation would also make the virus weaker were later dashed. Worse, the mutation appeared to be an inherent characteristic of the N1 virus protein, making it likely that other strains – such as swine flu – would in time undergo it.The laws of natural selection mean that if swine flu does mutate, the new strain would quickly become dominant , Dr Gamblin added.

Woman is the city's second victim and the 11th in the United States

NEW YORK - A New York City woman died over the weekend of swine flu, becoming the city's second victim and America's 11th.

The World Health Organization, as of Friday, had tallied more than 12,000 swine flu cases worldwide, with more than half of them in the United States. It counted at least 86 deaths, with 75 of those in Mexico.

The New York woman, who was in her 50s, had other health conditions, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said. No other information on her case was disclosed Sunday. full story