WASHINGTON - THE H1N1 swine flu virus can develop resistance quickly to antivirals used to treat it, US doctors reported on Friday.
Government researchers reported on the cases of two people with compromised immune systems who developed drug-resistant strains of virus after less than two weeks on therapy.
Bacteria quickly develop resistance to antibiotics, which must be used carefully. Viruses can do the same and doctors worried about resistance had recommended against using antivirals for flu except in patients who really needed them.
'While the emergence of drug-resistant influenza virus is not in itself surprising, these cases demonstrate that resistant strains can emerge after only a brief period of drug therapy,' said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
'We have a limited number of drugs available for treating influenza and these findings provide additional urgency to efforts to develop antivirals that attack influenza virus in novel ways,' he said in a statement.
Swine flu emerged a year ago in the United States and Mexico and spread around the world in just six weeks, killing thousands of people. It hit children and young adults especially hard. Older antiviral drugs did not work against it - they do not work against seasonal flu, either - but Roche AG's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, did. It was not widely used, however. -- REUTERS
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