Drug-resistant H7N9 strains to change treatment: researcher
ROC Central News Agency
2013/05/26 17:46:26
Taipei, May 26 (CNA) The discovery that some H7N9 bird flu virus strains have developed drug resistance will affect the strategies for dealing with future cases, a researcher said Saturday.
Some H7N9 strains found in a Taiwanese businessmen who became the first and only confirmed case outside China in late April after returning from there, were resistant to Tamiflu, a drug used to prevent and treat flu, said Shih Shin-ru, director of Chang Gung University's Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections.
Since there have also been H7N9 virus strains with the same drug-resistant gene found in a case in Shanghai, Shih said, Lee was probably exposed to large amounts of the virus in China.
Speaking at a seminar in Taipei on the H7N9 bird flu that was organized by National Taiwan University's (NTU's) College of Public Health, Shih said that laboratories can develop tests for drug-resistant strains of the virus based on this finding.
Once such drug-resistant strains are found in a patient, the doctors can then quickly change the drugs they use for treatment, she added.
The Taiwanese businessman, identified only by his family name Lee, returned to Taiwan April 9 after a trip to China's Jiangsu Province, one of the country's H7N9 bird flu-affected areas. He fell ill with flu-like symptoms April 12 but did not go to see a doctor until April 16.
Lee was transferred to NTU Hospital April 20 and confirmed to have been infected with the new avian flu virus April 24. He was discharged from the hospital May 24.
The virus has so far infected at least 130 people in China, killing 36 of them, but no new confirmed cases have been reported since May 8, according to the latest data on the official website of the World Health Organization.
(By Chen Ching-fang and Kay Liu)
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