Chicago – A less common strain of flu has shown hints of resistance to two flu drugs among patients in a small study in Japan, a country known for prescribing the drugs more frequently than anywhere else in the world.
Signs of resistance to the drugs Tamiflu and Relenza turned up among a few patients who had type B influenza, normally a milder flu causing smaller outbreaks than the more common type A.
Previous studies, including work by the same researchers, have found a few cases of resistance to Tamiflu in type A flu, the variety thought most likely to cause a pandemic if bird flu changes into a form that is more easily spread among people.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the study, said Japanese doctors prescribe anti-flu drugs frequently, perhaps too often, giving viruses a chance to evolve.
“We were afraid this might happen and, sure enough, it has,” Schaffner said.
The new study appears in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
