FLU VIRUS REPORTED TO RESIST DRUG ENVISIONED FOR PANDEMIC

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Fri, 14 Oct 2005 11:19:43 -0500

UW-Madison News Release--Flu virus drug/pandemic]

 

 

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UW-Madison News Release--Flu virus drug/pandemic

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 11:17:29 -0500

UW-Madison news <releases

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10/14/05

 

CONTACT: Yoshihiro Kawaoka, (608) 265-4925, kawaokay

 

FLU VIRUS REPORTED TO RESIST DRUG ENVISIONED FOR PANDEMIC

 

MADISON - An avian influenza virus isolated from an infected Vietnamese

girl has been determined to be resistant to the drug oseltamivir, the

compound better known by its trade name Tamiflu, and the drug officials

hope will serve as the front line of defense for a feared influenza

pandemic.

 

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with

colleagues in Vietnam and Japan, report in a brief communication in next

week's edition (Oct. 20, 2005) of the journal Nature that a young girl,

provided with a prophylactic dose of the drug after experiencing mild

influenza symptoms, developed a strain of the virus that was highly

resistant to the drug.

 

The finding suggests that health officials - now stockpiling millions of

doses of the drug to forestall a global outbreak of influenza and buy

time to develop and mass produce a vaccine - should also consider other

options, according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an international authority on

influenza and the senior author of the Nature paper.

 

Recent reports indicate the federal government may spend billions of

dollars to stockpile as much as 81 million courses of Tamiflu to

forestall a possible influenza pandemic. The government has already

stockpiled an estimated 12 to 13 million courses.

 

" This is the first line of defense, " says Kawaoka, a professor in the

UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine who holds a joint appointment

at the University of Tokyo. " It is the drug many countries are

stockpiling, and the plan is to rely heavily on it. "