NC Reports Tamiflu Resistant Cases of Swine Flu
November 20, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Not a good sign in the fight against Swine Flu. Health officials say four people in North Carolina have tested positive for a type of swine flu that’s resistant to the drug Tamiflu. It’s the first cluster of that many cases seen in the U.S.
Health officials said Friday the four cases were reported at Duke University Medical Center in Durham over the past six weeks.
Tamiflu is one of two medicines that help against swine flu. Health officials have been closely watching for signs that the virus is mutating, making the drugs ineffective.
About 52 resistant cases have been reported in the world since April, including 15 in the U.S. so far. Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say almost all the U.S. cases have been isolated.
via IndyStar.com | AP National | The Indianapolis Star.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=76475deb-2c12-43b7-97d3-314fce06458d)
Swine Flu Spreads Long After Fever Stops
When the coughing stops is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious, experts said after seeing new research that suggests the virus can still spread many days after a fever goes away.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer _ especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.
Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.
“This study shows you’re not contagious for a day or two. You’re probably contagious for about a week,” said Gaston De Serres, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in Quebec.
He presented one of the studies Monday at an American Society for Microbiology conference. It is the first big meeting of infectious disease experts since last spring’s emergence of swine flu, which now accounts for nearly all of the flu cases in the United States. More than 1 million Americans have been infected and nearly 600 have died from it, the CDC estimates.
