CDC: Flu virus resistant to two common drugs
- From: "Uno" <Uno@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:52:38 GMT
CDC: Flu virus resistant to two common drugs
ATLANTA - The government, for the first time, is urging doctors not to
prescribe two antiviral drugs commonly used to fight influenza because of
concerns about drug resistance, officials announced Saturday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recommendation
covers the drugs rimantadine and amantadine for the 2006 flu season.
Results of recent lab tests on influenza samples showed that the predominant
strain this season - the H3N2 influenza strain - was resistant to the drugs,
the agency said.
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"Clinicians should not use rimantadine and amantadine ... because the drugs
will not be effective," said CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding. The two
drugs have been used for years to combat type-A influenza.
Gerberding said the lab data, which CDC scientists had been analyzing since
Friday, surprised health officials and the health agency rushed to get the
word out Saturday.
"I don't think we were expecting it to be so dramatic so quickly this year,"
Gerberding said. "We just didn't feel it was responsible to wait three more
days during a holiday weekend to let clinicians know."
The CDC tested 120 influenza A virus samples from the H3N2 strain and found
that 91 percent, or 109, were resistant to the two drugs. Two years ago,
less than 2 percent of the samples were resistant. Last year, 11 percent
were, the CDC said.
Mutation, overuse may have caused resistance
Gerberding said the agency was not sure how the resistance occurred, saying
it may have been the result of a mutation in the H3N2 flu strain or could
have come from overuse of the drugs abroad, such as in countries that permit
them drugs to be purchased without a prescription.
One flu expert, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, said the
development was "disconcerting" as flu now has joined the ranks of other
diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, that recently have acquired the
ability to resist front-line medications.
But Schaffner said doctors have other options to fight influenza.
One is the antiviral Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir. The CDC said that
all H3 and H1 influenza viruses the agency has tested so far are susceptible
to the other commonly used antivirals, including Tamiflu and zanamivir, also
called Relenza.
"Tamiflu is now readily available everywhere - in most places, it is the
primary antiviral being used" against flu, Schaffner said. "But we're always
a bit frustrated when one of the therapeutic agents is foreclosed. It makes
every infectious disease doctor worry a little bit."
Doctors also recommend an annual flu shot to help prevent getting influenza
in the first place.
The CDC said it planned to alert doctors throughout the country via its
emergency Health Alert Network and through a special edition of its weekly
journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Each year, the flu kills about 36,000 people, and some 200,000 are
hospitalized because of it in the United States, the CDC said. As of Dec.
31, the latest CDC data available, flu activity was only considered
widespread in seven U.S. states, mainly in the Southwest and West: Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California.
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