Swine Flu Pandemic

**Zeus** · July 4th, 2009 10:36 AM

[quote]
Tamiflu-resistant swine flu case found in Hong Kong

Agence France-Presse | 07/03/2009 11:01 PM

HONG KONG - Hong Kong on Friday detected a strain of swine flu that was resistant to Tamiflu, the main anti-viral flu drug, the health department reported on its website.

The statement said the resistant strain of influenza A (H1N1) was detected during routine tests of its sensitivity to anti-virals.

"This is the first time Tamiflu resistance in HSI virus (has been) found in Hong Kong," a spokesman said.

The case came as the Japanese health ministry said doctors had detected the second case worldwide of a patient resistant to Tamiflu, widely used to treat the illness.

In the Hong Kong case the resistant virus was isolated from a specimen taken from a 16-year-old girl who arrived in the southern Chinese city from San Francisco last month.

She was admitted to hospital and opted not to take Tamiflu, the spokesman said, but was discharged after a week.

The strain is not resistant to the other anti-viral drug, Relenza, the health department said.

A spokeswoman for Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche, which makes Tamiflu, said the company had been informed of the case and called it "normal."

"It is absolutely normal," she said, adding that "0.4 percent of adults develop resistance" to Tamiflu.

Last month, authorities ordered all primary schools in Hong Kong to be closed for two weeks after the first cluster of local swine flu cases was found.

When Hong Kong discovered its first case, in early May, health authorities quarantined around 300 guests and staff at a hotel where the carrier, a Mexican, had briefly stayed.

Hong Kong is particularly nervous about infectious diseases following the outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003, which killed 300 people here and a further 500 around the world.

The latest numbers from the World Health Organization, released on Wednesday, showed 77,201 reported swine flu cases, with 332 deaths.

In Japan, the health ministry said doctors in Osaka prefecture had identified a woman who was resistant to Tamiflu -- the second such case, after one found in Denmark.

The Japanese woman had since been treated with Relenza and was recovering, Kyodo news agency reported Thursday, citing the health ministry.

In China, furious relatives of a woman who died while being treated for suspected swine flu stoned an ambulance in a rampage at a hospital in the eastern city of Hangzhou, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Initial reports stoked fears she might be the first person in China to die from swine flu, but police said on Friday that an autopsy had shown she died of an electric shock.

Xinhua reported that the woman had shown no symptoms of swine flu at the time of death, barring an occasional cough.
as of 07/03/2009 11:01 PM[quote]
Source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Immune na sa Tamiflu yun original swine flu virus...

**Stoner** · July 4th, 2009 02:14 PM

Hm... grabeng pasaway?

A(H1N1) patient bar-hopped in Quezon City
[SIZE="1"]Philstar.com - Saturday, July 4SendIM StoryPrint[/SIZE]

MANILA, Philippines – A 20-year-old Filipino-Malaysian, the second person who tested positive for Influenza A(H1N1) virus in Valenzuela City, had gone bar-hopping while still infected, city health task force officials said yesterday.

The STAR also gathered that although the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) informed the city health office that the patient tested positive for the virus on June 19, the local task force on the disease found him only yesterday or 13 days later.

The patient has recovered from the disease and had been attending classes at a local college.

Valenzuela Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian assailed the patient’s alleged deliberate intention to “recklessly” mislead the public. He said it was unfortunate that the flu victim reportedly gave the authorities a false contact number and the wrong address, accounting for the serious delay and the unhindered spread of the disease.

Task force officials said the man gave wrong information to apparently evade being quarantined and maintain his lifestyle. The patient admitted later that he went bar-hopping in Quezon City at the time he was infected.

Gatchalian appealed to the public’s sense of social responsibility to undergo self-quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease.

“We reiterate the Department of Health’s call for vigilance while appealing to the good sense of the public to act responsibly. We are deeply concerned and appeal to everybody to take the necessary precautionary measures to prevent the disease from further spreading,” he said.

City information chief Marither Menia, a member of the city health task force A(H1N1), said members of the patient’s family have been diagnosed as A(H1N1)-free.

City epidemiologist Dr. Manuel Mapue said the patient arrived from Malaysia on June 6 but allegedly gave his date of arrival as June 9.

The man allegedly submitted himself for checkup on June 12 and was referred to the Lung Center of the Philippines for swabbing. He tested positive for the flu, according to a lab culture test made by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine on June 18. - [SIZE="1"]By Jerry Botial (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)[/SIZE]

**CVT** · July 4th, 2009 02:27 PM

The Media has pounded us on the issue, until we can take no more. The government has practically abandoned its responsibility on its people. Both are just keeping the scores. Bottomline, we are left to fend for ourselves one way or the other.

Now, that's what we pay our taxes for...

8202:sampay: