Spain reports mutant swine flu death

EPIDEMICS

Pandemic flu is declining in North America: WHO
Geneva (AFP) Dec 4, 2009 - The World Health Organisation confirmed on Friday that swine flu has peaked in North America and was declining, in its latest weekly data on the pandemic. However, in both Canada and the United States, the virus remains "active and geographically widespread," while for the past eight weeks hospitalisation and death rates exceeded those seen in a normal flu season, the WHO added. A(H1N1) influenza was reaching a peak of intensity in much of western Europe, as the disease progressed eastwards into central Europe and through parts of Asia, the WHO added in its pandemic update. "Disease activity has peaked and is declining in North America and has either recently peaked or is currently peaking in much of western and northern Europe," it said. "In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, the early arriving winter influenza season continues to intensify across central Europe and in parts of central, eastern, and southern Asia."

The UN health agency nonetheless also reported signs of a levelling off of flu activity in eastern European countries that have been hit hard recently, such as Ukraine and Belarus. As swine flu reached into 207 countries, the global death toll since the A(H1N1) influenza virus was uncovered in April reached 8,768 -- an increase of 942, slightly less than the sharp jump recorded the previous week. The fastest growth in the death toll was recorded in the WHO's European region, which stretches from Ireland to the Pacific coast of Russia, including former Soviet states in Central Asia and Turkey. Some 918 people have died of flu there since the outbreak was recorded, a 41 percent increase in the week to November 29, but still half the surge recorded a week earlier. In the hardest hit region, North and South America, the toll grew by just under 10 percent to 5,878.

by Staff Writers
Madrid (AFP) Dec 4, 2009
A patient infected by a mutant strain of the swine flu A(H1N1) virus has died in Spain, the health ministry said Friday.

"We have registered three cases of mutation, including one which was fatal. These are three isolated cases, there has been no transmission to any other person," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

It is the sixth fatal case of mutated A(H1N1) virus in Europe, after one in the Netherlands and two each in France and Norway.

Last month the World Health Organisation said that mutations had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico --, where the swine flu pandemic began -- Ukraine and the United States as early as April.

Italy also reported a non-fatal case on Monday.

"The mutations appear to occur sporadically and spontaneously. To date, no links between the small number of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread," a WHO statement said on November 20.

The WHO also underlined that there was no evidence of more infections or more deaths as a result, while the mutated virus detected up to that point remained sensitive to antiviral drugs used to treat severe flu, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).

Scientists fear that mutations in flu viruses could cause a more virulent and deadly pandemic flu. The global health watchdog reiterated a call for close monitoring.

One of the three patients infected in Spain had a mutation which made the virus resistant to Tamiflu but was successfully treated with another medication, the health ministry spokesman said.

The two other patients, including the one who died, were infected with another type of mutation which was identical to the one detected for the first time in November in Norway, he added.

The patient who survived with this mutation had a "light form" of the disease, he said.

Spain has so far recorded 169 deaths related to the swine flu virus, according to the latest toll issued by the health ministry. It was the first European country to confirm a case of the virus.

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EPIDEMICS

Netherlands reports mutant swine flu death
The Hague (AFP) Dec 3, 2009
Dutch authorities said Thursday a patient infected by a mutant strain of the swine flu virus had died, but added that this was not the cause of death. Harald Wychgel, spokesman for the Dutch Institute for Health and the Environment, told AFP that there had been a "minor change in the virus to make it resistant to Tamiflu," a key treatment for influenza. "He died not because the virus was ... read more

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