Researchers fear mutant swine flu strain

July 7, 2011

Researchers fear mutant flu strain

* Brigid O'Connell * From: Sunday Herald Sun June 26, 2011 12:00AM

MUTANT swine flu strains, resistant to existing treatments, have been detected

in Australia by Melbourne researchers, sparking concerns of a new virus threat.

Swine flu has been stable since the 2009 pandemic, in which 24 deaths in the

state were linked to the H1N1 virus.

But researchers from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on

Influenza found that 30 per cent of H1N1 samples collected in Darwin and 10 per

cent in Singapore, had the mutation S247N. This variant has lower resistance to

current drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza.

Deputy director of the WHO Centre and senior author of the study, Dr Ian Barr,

said the mutation was worrying.

" We'd prefer our viruses be completely susceptible to all our medications, so,

it's always a concern when we see even low-level resistance to them in these

viruses, " he said.

Dr Barr said treatments generally would work against the new flu strain, but the

greatest problem would be treating patients with more than one type of mutated

virus.

A sample from a Perth patient who died in March revealed he had the new S247N

mutation, but also another variant, H275Y, a combination 6000 times more

resistant than the 2009 pandemic strain.

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