New report form the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) again raises more questions about the effectiveness of flu vaccines. The research is published in Journal of the American Medical Association.
According to a new report from the U.S. CDC most common strain of flu in the United States now resist to Tamiflu, the drug of choice for treating flu. You remember Tamiflu as the drug that was going to save us all from the impending bird flu that was about to overwhelm us all.
CDC researchers found that nearly all of flu samples from the H1N1, the most common strain of flu in the United States this year, have evolved to a point where they are resistant to Tamiflu. “As of February 19, 2009, resistance to oseltamivir had been identified among 264 of 268 (98.5 percent) U.S. influenza A(H1N1) viruses tested,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
According to researchers, during last flu season just 19 percent of H1N1 viruses tested were resistant to Tmiflu-resistant. Interviews of flu victims found that about 30% of patients who had the flu had also been vaccinated. Even at its peak effectivness, the vaccine is known not to fully protect against infection.
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