Skip to main content

Japan, Hong Kong Find Tamiflu-Resistant Swine Flu Cases

By VOA News
03 July 2009


Pharmacist walks past package of anti-influenza virus medicine Tamiflu in Paderborn, Germany, 28 Apr 2009
Pharmacist walks past package of anti-influenza virus medicine Tamiflu (File photo)
Japan and Hong Kong say they have each identified cases of the swine influenza A-H1N1 virus that are resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. Denmark reported the first such case earlier this week.

Japan's Health Ministry said Friday that it discovered the resistance in a patient who had been given Tamiflu after being diagnosed with swine flu. The patient was recovering after taking Relenza, another medicine used to contain the pandemic.





Hong Kong health officials say they found the Tamiflu-resistant strain in a sample from a 16-year-old girl who tested positive for swine flu when she returned from the city of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California last month.

The company that makes Tamiflu, Swiss drug maker Roche says about half of one percent of all flu cases are resistant to the drug.

The World Health Organization says more than 77,000 cases of swine flu have been confirmed worldwide, including more than 330 deaths.

The WHO recently declared a pandemic - the first in more than 40 years - as the H1N1 swine flu spread worldwide.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Royal garb

Kim Kardashian reacts to photographers at the Noon by Noor launch event in West Hollywood, Calif., Wednesday night. Noon by Noor is a fashion collection designed by Kingdom of Bahrain royalty Noor Rashid Al Khalifa and Haya Mohammed Al Khalifa. (AP/Chris Pizzello)       The Jakarta Post | Thu, 07/21/2011 3:04 PM
Post a Comment
Read more

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...
Post a Comment
Read more