A patient with an oseltamivir-resistant strain of bird flu virus

Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 26 Oct 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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An H5N1 strain of bird influenza virus that infected a Vietnamese girl in February is resistant to the antiviral drug oseltamivir (sold as Tamiflu), Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues report in a Brief Communication in this week's Nature. The girl recovered, but the finding raises the concern that oseltamivir may not be sufficient to fight a potential H5N1 pandemic.

What's more, circumstances indicate that the girl could have been infected by her brother rather than directly by birds, the authors say. However, more such cases of suspected transmission of the virus from human to human need to be investigated and verified before the implications can be assessed.

The researchers identified a mutation in the virus strain's neuraminidase protein that rendered it resistant to oseltamivir, a drug which is designed to inhibit neuraminidase. However, when they used the resistant virus to infect ferrets, they found that it was still sensitive to zanamivir (sold as Relenza), another drug that inhibits the neuraminidase protein. "It could be useful to stockpile zanamivir as well as oseltamivir in the event of an H5N1 influenza pandemic", the authors conclude.

(p1107)

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