Last week, officials at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., <a href=”http://www.heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-4+at+Duke+get+drug-resistant+H1N1%20&id=4664081-4+at+Duke+get+drug-resistant+H1N1&instance=homefirstleft”>announced</a> that four patients who were isolated in an isolated cancer unit contracted a drug-resistant strain of H1N1 while hospitalized. Three of the patients died, but a fourth is reportedly doing better and will likely recover.

Although this outbreak represents the largest cluster of H1N1 mutation in the United States so far, these four patients had other health issues and experts in infectious diseases say the mutations are rare and not a cause for alarm at this point.

A <a href=”http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/URIstheFlu/17142?userid=153371&impressionId=1258957725991&utm_source=mSpoke&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_content=Group1″>report</a> out today from Medpage Today says the Centers for Disease Control is monitoring the mutations, which have also appeared in Norway in Wales, but sees on cause for alarm:

<blockquote>The mutation has been seen “sporadically” in the U.S., according to Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

But in the U.S., the mutation has been associated with mild disease, she said, although the Norwegians isolated it from the first two patients who died of the disease in that country.

The mutation was also found in a third patient who had severe disease, according to a statement from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Schuchat told reporters that there are “theoretical reasons” for thinking that the mutation might make it easier for the virus to penetrate to the lower lungs, leading to more severe disease.

But she said in the U.S., patients have had severe lower respiratory infections caused by strains without the mutation, as well as mild disease caused by strains with the mutation.

“It’s just too soon for us to say what this is going to mean long term,” Schuchat said. “It’s an important finding for the influenza virologists, and they’re looking into it.”

She added that the mutation “has no implications for how good the match of the vaccine is and no implications for treatment with antiviral medicine… But it’s important for us to continue to track influenza viruses and look for changes,” she said.</blockquote>

Schuchat also said that the CDC will be monitoring reports to track any future outbreaks of the mutatated virus and whether it is more common in cases of severe disease.