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Thursday, September 30, 2010

US : H1N1 flu virus can mutate in immunosuppressed patients - study

Via Reuters, excerpt :

" BOSTON : Patients with suppressed immune systems can quickly develop H1N1 flu infections that resist all known drugs, doctors in the Netherlands reported on Wednesday.

A health worker gets a single dose of Influenza A H1N1 vaccine inside a Department of Health (DOH) office in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila in this April 26, 2010 file photo.

The case of a 5-year-old leukemia patient who died from swine flu after the virus mutated in his body showed that people with weakened immune systems may be at greater risk of developing dangerous drug-resistant infections, and illustrated the risks of using current drugs to treat these patients, the researchers said.

The H1N1 virus infecting the boy mutated to resist all three drugs approved to treat it, Dr. Charles Boucher of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine."

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