Superflu strikes in the Midlands

Jan 3 2009 By Adam Aspinall

SEVEN Midlanders have been struck by a potentially lethal strain of superflu which is resistant to drugs over the last six months.

The Health Protection Agency said the patients survived the H1N1 virus which cannot be treated with the Tamiflu – the usual drug prescribed to treat the illness. Tamiflu has been stockpiled by the British Government as the first line of defence against a feared global flu outbreak.

The resistant strain is a form of the H1N1 flu virus and was identified in more than 20 European countries in the last flu season.

It is similar to the Spanish Flu, or La Pesadilla, that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide between 1918 and 1919.

That pandemic was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza, a viral infectious disease that is thought to have been one of the most deadly pandemics in human history.

It was caused by the H1N1 type of influenza virus, which is similar to bird flu of today, mainly H5N1 and H5N2.

But it has been reported European Scientists have found that the H1N1 strain is three times more likely to cause pneumonia in patients than the normal strain, making it more deadly.

A recent study by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the HPA, found H1N1 not only heightened the possibility of pneumonia, but that twice as many flu patients with the drug-resistant strain developed inflamed sinuses.

“Resistance in a more virulent influenza virus can have serious public health implications,” Siri Hauge, who led the study, said.

Fewer treatment options and a more severe form of the virus can