Tamiflu-Resistant Swine Flu Passed Person-to-Person in U.S.

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Two females who shared a cabin developed symptoms after starting on Tamiflu and were later found to have a virus with two viral mutations that rendered them resistant to the drug. The mutated virus was not found in other people tested.

What's troubling is that one of the females appears to have transmitted the mutated virus to her cabin mate. "It is likely that this resistant virus was passed from one camper to the other based on the timing between the illnesses and 2 genetic mutations found in the virus in both campers," explained Dr. Natalie Janine Dailey, lead author of the study and an epidemic intelligence service officer with the North Carolina Division of Public Health Communicable Disease Branch. "A small number of cases of oseltamivir-resistant have been seen in the U.S. so far, but these were the first cases reported in otherwise healthy individuals and the first which appeared to have spread from one person to another."

"This suggests that using oseltamivir to prevent influenza in healthy people may increase the risk of resistance," she said. "If resistance became widespread, oseltamivir would no longer be effective."

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With this in mind, Dailey believes that the H1N1 vaccine, instead of antivirals, should be used for prevention as it becomes available, although treatment with antivirals should begin immediately in people who are hospitalized or who are at high risk, such as pregnant women, children under the age of 2 and people with underlying health conditions.

A second team of researchers looked at 26 elementary-school students in Pennsylvania and their household contacts who had tested positive for H1N1 to assess virus "shedding patterns."

"We found the median duration of shedding to be six days, with a minimum of one day and a maximum of 13 days," said study author Dr. Achuyt Bhattarai, an epidemic intelligence service officer with the CDC.

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