Commentary
Tamiflu
Resistant H1N1
Forces School Closings in Japan
Recombinomics Commentary
15:29
January 8, 2009
the separation of the two NA shares were part of the genetic analysis of genes, that are characteristic of stocks and shares H275Y oseltamivir resistance were resistant marker.
The above translation is from a recent NIH Japan report on the isolation of Tamiflu resistant H1N1 from elementary school students in the Shiga Prefecture in November (see updated map). The outbreak closed three elementary schools.
This report follows a similar report on H1N1 from elementary school students from ten school closings in Sendai in October, 2008. In the prior report, partial sequences from three of the gene segments (HA, NA, MP) were used to generate phylogenetic trees. The NA sequences had H274Y, and the HA sequences had three changes flanking the receptor binding domain position 190 (H3 numbering), which were G189V, A193T, and H196R, which exactly matched sequences from isolates in the United States this season (HI, TX, PA).
These school outbreaks are in addition to the three H1N1 isolates from a kindergarten in Yamaguchi Prefecture described in the WHO report on early H1N1 isolates in the northern hemisphere this season, which reported 13/14 H1N1 isoaltes from Japan had H274Y..
These reports indicate the H1N1 Tamiflu resistance is widespread in Japan, and the aggressive virus is forcing the closing of kindergarten and elementary schools.
Similar results are expected in the United States, where the same sub-clade is widely circulating.
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