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If you have not yet had a flu shot, get one. You have two weeks to get the protection one offers.

A drug-resistant influenza strain that has spread globally this year needs further study to gauge its virulence, according to doctors in Norway who found the bug was linked with patients suffering more severe symptoms.

A form of the H1N1 seasonal flu virus that evades Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu appeared more likely to cause pneumonia and sinusitis than the H1N1 strain without the resistance-causing mutation, researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency said.

While “not a statistically significant finding,” results of the study, involving fewer than 300 patients, “warrant further investigation,” the authors said. The study was released online today ahead of publication in the February edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A drug-resistant influenza strain that has spread globally this year needs further study to gauge its virulence, according to doctors in Norway who found the bug was linked with patients suffering more severe symptoms.

A form of the H1N1 seasonal flu virus that evades Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu appeared more likely to cause pneumonia and sinusitis than the H1N1 strain without the resistance-causing mutation, researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency said.

While “not a statistically significant finding,” results of the study, involving fewer than 300 patients, “warrant further investigation,” the authors said. The study was released online today ahead of publication in the February edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is no cause for alarm yet but these initial reports are unsettling, to say the least.

This year’s form of the seasonal flu virus, an H1N1 mutation, may cause pneumonia and sinusitis more often than H1N1 without the mutation. These more serious complications are showing up in some early cases.

This specific influenza strain shows drug resistance even in Norway where Tamiflu has not been available. In other words, this strain is not becoming more aggressive because of medication over-use.

Tamiflu has been the drug of choice in treating influenza in the U.S.

The C.D.C. is advising doctors to use Relenza, an orally inhaled medicine, or Tamiflu in combination with an older drug, called rimantidine.

Bloomberg

“A drug-resistant influenza strain that has spread globally this year needs further study to gauge its virulence, according to doctors in Norway who found the bug was linked with patients suffering more severe symptoms. (Emphasis added)

“A form of the H1N1 seasonal flu virus that evades Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu appeared more likely to cause pneumonia and sinusitis than the H1N1 strain without the resistance-causing mutation, researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency said.

“While “not a statistically significant finding,” results of the study, involving fewer than 300 patients, “warrant further investigation,” the authors said. The study was released online today ahead of publication in the February edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Tamiflu-evading influenza has been reported in 50 countries on six continents since widespread resistance to the bestselling antiviral was first reported to the World Health Organization by Norway in January. Its emergence prompted doctors to consider other medicines, such as GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Relenza, to fight a disease the WHO estimates causes 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually.

“In the U.S., doctors prescribing anti-flu treatments should give their patients Relenza, an orally inhaled medicine, or a combination of Tamiflu and an older drug called rimantadine, the CDC said in a Dec. 19 statement. Basel, Geneva-based Roche had worldwide Tamiflu sales of $1.74 billion in 2007 and $2.1 billion in 2006.”

Source: Bloomberg News,  December 31, 2008

Citation: Centers for Disease Control, December 31, 2008 (Online/Early Release)