So far there have been only "sporadic cases" of the A/H1N1 influenza which are resistant to anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu so there is no need to change the way of treatment, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Tuesday.
Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security, said the three patients, in Denmark, Japan and Hong Kong respectively, whose H1N1 virus showed resistance to Tamiflu have fully recovered.
"Right now these examples of oseltamivir (tamiflu) resistance remain sporadic cases," he told a news briefing in Geneva.
Since there is no evidence of widespread cases of anti-virual drugs H1NI virus, "at this point we are not recommending any clinical changes to the approach in treating patients," he said.
So far the new flu virus has caused more than 98,000 laboratory-confirmed infections in some 137 countries and regions, with 440 deaths, according to latest figures provided by the WHO, which on June 11 formally announced the first pandemic in the 21st century.
Fukuda said the WHO would soon issue new guidelines for member states on how to monitor the H1N1 virus.
It would recommend that countries with already widespread diseases stop laboratory testing of new cases. Instead, they should focus on possible mutations of the virus and any unusual development of the situation.
(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2009)
