What's Up With The Flu?
Posted by Slobokan @ 02:05 · 155 words · print
Something strange is going on, there is no doubt about that.
Virtually all the flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why.
The problem is not yet a public health crisis because this has been a below-average flu season so far and the chief strain circulating is still susceptible to other drugs — but infectious disease specialists are worried nonetheless.
Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.
Tamiflu resistant strains increased from 11 to 99 percent in one year. That's one hell of a mutation. Now if we could just get people to stop focusing on diet pill reviews long enough to find out why.
Posted In: News Worthy
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