Health

Tamiflu-resistant swine flu hit's UK

by generaldecay | November 20, 2009 at 09:51 am

105 views | 16 Recommendations | 7 comments

Health officials say a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu has spread between hospital patients. Five patients on a unit treating people with severe underlying health conditions at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff were infected.

Erk. But as I understand it, Tamiflu is actually unlikely to save you if you are going to die from swine flue anyway. Indeed, Tamiflu's main effect seems to be not to eradicate the virus, but to merely shorten its length by 1-2 days.

So, this might not be as bad as it seems.

And besides:

"In this case, the resistant strain of swine flu does not appear to be any more severe than the swine flu virus that has been circulating since April."

Here is a related story from Amy Judd.

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Amy Judd

at 12:38 on November 20th, 2009

These stories are so scary

generaldecay

at 12:42 on November 20th, 2009

Amy, they are and they aren't. I'm starting to get a bit sceptical. Swine flue was supposed to have taken over England by November and it hasn't. It's not even come close - it was worse in the summer. Similarly, people in my parents' county in Ireland were warned that by the start of November there would not a house in the county unaffected by swine flu. And it's not been mentioned since and the county is almost clear.

So, I just don't know how serious - tamiflu-resistant or otherwise - it all is. (But I hope I don't eat my words!)

Thanks for the comment and recommendation.

Roy C

at 14:19 on November 20th, 2009

Use non-acidic C in doses of ten to twenty thousand milligrams or more. Works.

generaldecay

at 02:58 on November 21st, 2009

Good advice here.

stejeb

at 12:28 on November 21st, 2009

I just hope that it isn't too much to worry about....finished work yesterday, got home and had to go straight out and get Tamiflu for my wife, she looks a bit better today, so.....