Tamiflu-resistant swine flu reported

ATLANTA, July 3 (UPI) -- Health officials in Japan and Hong Kong said each had a H1N1 flu patient resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, days after a Denmark patient was resistant.

Japanese Health Ministry official Takeshi Enami said the swine flu strain developed in a Japanese patient who was on the drug Tamiflu to prevent the illness. The patient has since recovered after taking Relenza -- another anti-viral influenza drug, WAtoday.com.au reported.

Hong Kong health officials said a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu was found in a 16-year-old girl who tested positive for the flu when she arrived from San Francisco last month. She has recovered without taking Tamiflu or Relenza, but the flu showed sensitivity to Relenza.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the drug company Roche Holding AG told the Wall Street Journal they consider Tamiflu effective against influenza A H1N1 even though a patient in Denmark developed resistance to the drug.

The Danish patient, who has since recovered, was taking the drug as a preventative to avoid the flu, but the patient was probably already infected with the virus and resistance to the drug emerged because of the lower preventative dose, the Journal said.