Paradigm Shift Intervention Monitoring
Commentary
Hong
Kong Tamiflu Resistant Pandemic Sequence Released
Recombinomics Commentary
06:57
July 7, 2009
These results mimic that seen in seasonal flu, where H274Y was appended onto multiple seasonal flu background. The polymorphisms jumped from one background to the next, via genetic hitchhiking and recombination. Thus like seasonal flu, the pandemic H1N1 has no evidence of reassortment. The H274Y is on an evolutionarily fit H1N1 that will allow the H274Y to move about through the pandemic H1N1 gene pool. This movement will be facilitated by widespread Tamiflu usage, which will select minor populations as happened in Denmark and Japan, where H274Y was identified in patients receiving a maintenance dose of Tamiflu.
However, in Hong Kong, like the many examples of H274Y in H1N1 seasonal flu, the resistance is in patients not receiving Tamiflu. However, the lessons of H274Y in seasonal flu were not learned. Recent comments have described H274Y acquisitions through random mutation and reassortment. However, there has been no examples of recent seasonal H1N1 flu genes in the pandemic H1N1 sequences, and the H274Y in patients receiving Tamiflu likely represent selection of a minor population with H274Y that is silently spread. The release of the sequences from Denmark and Japan would be useful.
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