SF teen has drug-resistant swine flu

ATLANTA — A San Francisco teenager was diagnosed with swine flu last month after arriving in Hong Kong on June 11. The 16-year-old was likely was infected in the United States, and has since recovered, health officials said Tuesday.

Her illness was mild, but noteworthy. She’s just the third person in the world to be diagnosed with a strain resistant to Tamiflu, the primary pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus.

Now that an American has come down with a resistant strain, U.S. health officials are stepping up testing of swine flu cases for Tamiflu resistance.

The other two resistant cases — patients in Denmark and Japan — had been taking Tamiflu as a preventive measure after coming into contact with someone with swine flu.

The California girl had not taken Tamiflu, meaning she apparently was infected by an already-circulating resistant strain before she traveled to Hong Kong.

“It’s a little more concerning” than the two previous cases, said Dr. Tim Uyeki of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Until an effective vaccine is developed, the drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are considered the best defense against the virus, which has caused nearly 34,000 reported illnesses in the United States, including at least 170 deaths.

Health officials say they are not alarmed. Such resistance has been seen in other types of flu.

They also believe resistance is not a widespread problem. No resistance was seen in the CDC’s analysis of about 200 U.S. swine flu samples. California officials said they have found no resistance in their tests of about 30 other samples in that state.

The CDC is calling for health departments to send in more samples for testing Tamiflu resistance, Uyeki said. California is already stepping up such testing, said Ralph Montano, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health. — AP