Infectious Disease

Oseltamivir-resistant flu discovered in border prison

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Mohan does not report any relevant financial information. Please refer to the study for all relevant financial information from the other authors.

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Researchers said four cases of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A (H1N1) with hemagglutinin, which belongs to a subgroup that could enable a virus to break out of a pre-existing immunity, were discovered in a border prison in Texas.

The cases highlight the need to monitor drug resistance and antigen drift of circulating influenza viruses, so Teena Mohan, PhD, a scientist in the influenza division of the CDC and colleagues.

Influenza Virus, Credit: CDC / Illustrator: Dan Higgins

Researchers identified four cases of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1 influenza in a border prison in Texas.
Source: Adobe Stock.

“Resistance to antiviral drugs for influenza is an ongoing public health problem,” they wrote in Emerging Infectious Diseases. “The neuraminidase (NA) inhibitor oseltamivir is the most widely prescribed antiviral drug used to fight influenza. From 2007 to 2009, however, oseltamivir-resistant influenza A (H1N1) viruses spread rapidly worldwide. “

However, since then the old circulating H1N1 virus has been replaced by the H1N1 virus that caused the 2009 pandemic, which was sensitive to oseltamivir, the researchers found.

For their study, Mohan and colleagues looked at 951 H1N1 isolates collected between October 2019 and September 2020. Among them, four had the NA-H275Y mutation, which is known to cause oseltamivir resistance. Another analysis found that all four isolates were collected on the same day from a border prison in Webb County, Texas, the researchers said.

A complementary analysis of 282 viruses collected from 18 states between November and March 2020 identified an additional six NA-H275Y viruses, 10 nationwide in total. All patients with the NA-H275Y virus had similar symptoms such as fever, cough, body aches, and sore throats.

“Although no evidence of the transmission of oseltamivir-resistant viruses outside of prison was found, the properties of the cluster viruses are worrying,” the authors write. “You belong to an HA 122 antigen-drifted group, and escaping pre-existing immunity may contribute to the spread of oseltamivir-resistant viruses in the coming seasons.”

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