Commentary
Flu
Outbreak at Texas High School Raises Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary
18:40
January 13, 2009
The above comments describe an influenza like illness at a high school in central Texas that is likely to be Tamiflu resistant H1N1. All influenza sub-typed to date in Texas has been H1N1. Moreover sequences from H1N1 isolates in Texas match H1N1 in Sendai, Japan where the virus forced the closing of 10 elementary schools. Similarly, Tamiflu resistant H1N1 caused school closings in another prefecture.
Moreover, South Korea is reporting an explosion of H1N1 cases, and 16/17 tested H1N1 isolates have H274Y. The frequency of illness continues to grow in Korea and is already nearly double the rate of the peak week last season.
In the United States the flu season is just beginning to grow, and most of the flu in the United States is H1N1. The school closings in Japan, coupled with the explosion of cases In Korea and the above high school raise concerns because the H1N1 is Tamiflu resistant and the three changes flanking the receptor binding domain are not in the current H1N1 Brisbane/59 vaccine..
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