Daylife/AP Photo by Jeff Morgan
The alternative to Tamiflu – a Relenza powder inhaler – Gack! |
Virtually all the flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why.
The problem is not yet a public health crisis because this has been a below-average flu season so far and the chief strain circulating is still susceptible to other drugs — but infectious disease specialists are worried nonetheless.
Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.
“It’s quite shocking,” said Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, director of infection control at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “We’ve never lost an antimicrobial this fast. It blew me away.”
The single mutation that creates Tamiflu resistance appears to be spontaneous, and not a reaction to overuse of the drug.
Complicating the problem, antiviral drugs work only if they are taken within the first 48 hours. A patient with severe flu could be given the wrong drug and die of pneumonia before test results come in. So the new guidelines suggest that doctors check with their state health departments to see which strains are most common locally and treat for them.
This is all pretty scary. I know a few folks who rely on keeping Tamiflu on hand at least during flu season because they’re in one or another of the groups that have higher susceptibility. Certainly scares the hell out of a cranky old geek like me.
Dvorak Uncensored gave readers a heads-up about Relenza 4 YEARS AGO. Click here.
They claim it is not a reaction to overuse??
How and why do they make that claim.
One for Adam Curry later in the article – “And we strongly suggest that people get a flu shot,…”
Adapting for survival is what nature does. Why shoud we be surprised?
If we had any sense, we’d see this as a reminder that we really know very little over all, and that we’d better be more cautious.
As Barry Commoner said, “Nature has evolved a mechanism over time, in such detail, that an arbitrary external change is liable to be detrimental. This is also true of a watch. A watch is the product of the evolutionary experience of watchmakers with watches. If you take the back off your watch, shut your eyes and poke a pencil into the works, there’s a very small chance that you might improve it. But not much.
“This is all pretty scary.”
Not really. Unless, you own stock in the manufacturer of Tamiflu.
One word: airports
Evolution at work, bitches.
Time to dig out my Vancomycin stash…
I read that Tamiflu actually will kill you because it prevents your body from fighting the flu by increasing your temperature. High temps inhibit flu replication. Maybe its a blessing in disguise, though I’m sure the drug company Roche is unhappy about it.
#6 – Gaolbird
>>Time to dig out my Vancomycin stash…
You’re the reason we have school shootings (and drug-resistant bacteria).
Vancomycin is an anti-bacterial drug. It has no effect on diseases of viral etiology, like influenza.
#1 — the exact same thing happened to Flumadine (rimantadine)about 3 years ago when it suddenly stopped working. I cannot see how the doctor cited could be “surprised” if he followed this at all. And it does not appear to be from overuse. But it is indeed fishy.
#7 — Cripes, do some reading. That’s not how it works at all and it doesn’t kill you. Where did you read this bullshit? Citation please!
This whole article seems to be written as a flu shot promotion. I’ve used relenza myself. There is nothing to it.
The NZ Medsafe Authority’s year 2000 public notice, “Influenza Infection, Relenza (zanamivir) and Adverse Respiratory Events” [..]
http://tinyurl.com/8qgqp3
Just, FYI.
Another thread that loses its punch without the “It’s Bush’s fault!” angle. Weak editors fail at life.
I’m still a fan of vaccination. Here in Portugal we’re having the worst flu outbreak in Europe – hospitals chokablok with tens of thousands of people – and the only ones laughing are the ones who took the vaccine.
#11, F*ckedup,
Feel free to insert your “protein cell” argument on this one.
It’s a virus, they mutate and propagate far faster than bacteria. Given a highly mobile population in close quarters, it’s not that surprising.
well duh…all these anti-virals are nothing more than government sweetheart deal money making scams..
the stuff is only approved for type A or B flu..the insane rate at which viruses mutate pretty much made this stuff null and void the day the thought about designing it..
despite the flu vaccine mania (of 2007 was it?), avg infection rate remains at about 5% for the last decade or so..
ofc i’m sure the long history of voting/influential physicians as well as many of the people sitting on the CDC and FDA advisory boards, present and past, that receive research funding, own stock or have previously worked for the companies that produce these drugs and vaccines is of no concern whatsoever.. -surely they are only concerned for the well being of the public..
do yourselves a favor and stop being a guinea pig.
learn how to make, store and administer your own century’s old anti-viral/bacterial remedies from some very easily acquired and *non-toxic* elements.
-before they (and the knowledge) are erased from history for good.
(vancomycin…rofl. -someone sell this guy a clue.)
-s
#15…Look on the bright side, a planetary pandemic would make us forget all about the economic crisis, now wouldn’t it?
Actually, there is something to that. Following several rounds of plague in the late Middle Ages, economic conditions in Europe improved. Less people, same amount of wealth equals, on average, wealthier, healthier survivors.
On a somewhat lighter note,
How many people have actually taken these anti-virals for the flu? I don’t know about the rest of you, but 9 out of 10 times I’ve come down with the flu, it has started on a Friday evening, usually just preceding a Jewish holy day. Getting to the doctor is out of the question for the first 48 hours.
Of course, I got the vaccine every year for the last 6 or so, so I’ve rarely had a real bad case. The worst I recall was during the Clinton Impeachment Hearings….when was that? 1998?