Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Maryland, Mar 29, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The H1N1 swine flu virus that caused havoc last year all over the world and killed many young adults and children, according to reports can become drug-resistant if use of the antiviral is not done properly. On last Friday, Government researchers revealed that two persons affected by the swine flu virus developed a drug resistant strain in their body within two weeks of being under the medication.

This has set off an alarm for the researchers who now say that antibiotics should be used specifically for those persons who are in dire need of it. Researchers are also trying to produce some unique medication for treating the influenza and the seasonal flu. It is being found that during the swine flu outbreak in United States a year ago, while many efficient antiviral drugs could not produce results, a not so widely used Tamiflu or oseltamivir did yield positive effects on the patients.

The findings of the research conducted by Dr. Jerrery Taubenberger and his colleagues on two patients were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. They mention that while in the first patient the virus became immune to the Tamiflu drug after nine days, the other patient was detected with a mutated version of the virus after 14 days. When treated with an emergency intravenous drug, Biocryst’s peramivir, one of the patients showed resistance to it as well. The patients kept deteriorating under such a circumstance and were finally relieved with the help of GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza, a flu drug. All these have left the Researchers astounded and in a hurry to find out a proper way of treating the flu patients.