Watch the mutation of H1N1 in the Southern Hemisphere.

[Neubarth]

Swine Flu has been flirting with some serious mutations that can make it more deadly.

It is flu season on the southern half of our globe. All human Type A Influenza strains mutate over time. We are starting to see Tamiflu resistance in more and more cases (H274Y positive).

We are also seeing a deep chest attacking mutation like the mutation that caused so many pneumonia deaths in the Ukraine a few months ago (D225 G/N.). If H1N1 sweeps back into the northern hemisphere with that mutation, the death rate could go up appreciably. As in the Ukraine H1N1 is acting like ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ). It is believed that the same mutation (D225 G/N) was responsible for a large percentage of pneumonia deaths from Spanish Flu (also H1N1) in 1918.

This is not a prediction of impending doom, just a warning to keep your eyes open. We may find that the present flu vaccine that they are still pushing will not be effective on this new strain of H1N1 if it continues to mutate as much as we have seen.

 

[waltky]

Brits don't believe Tamiflu works...

British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu
12 Nov.`12 — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche. "I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug. Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu. "We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization. In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza. "Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions. "Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said. Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement. Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu - Yahoo! News

 

[Bigfoot]

I read recently that researchers in Taiwan were surprised at the positive effect that methamphetamine has on the swine flu virus. They say the drug itself is more harmful then the flu but maybe it will lead to a few new branches of research to combat the flu.

 

[waltky]

Resistance to the existing flu drugs is becoming an increasing problem...

Flu drug 'shows promise' in overcoming resistance
21 February 2013 - A new type of flu drug that can stop resistant strains in their tracks shows promise, say US researchers.

It permanently blocks a key enzyme on the surface of the flu virus, stopping it from spreading to other cells. In mice it was found to effective against strains which were resistant to the two flu antivirals currently on the market, the journal Science reported. The World Health Organization estimates that influenza affects three to five million people every year. Resistance to the existing flu drugs Relenza and Tamiflu is becoming an increasing problem, largely due to their overuse. The more exposure the flu virus has to the drugs - and in some countries it is available as a preventive treatment before people even catch the infection - the more chance it has of working out how to evade their effects. Yet in the event of a flu pandemic they are the only weapon available for treating patients in the months before a vaccine can be developed.

'Broken key'

A team of researchers from Canada, the UK and Australia developed a compound that binds to an enzyme on the surface of the flu virus called neuraminidase. This enzyme is responsible for severing the connection between the flu virus and human cell so it can move on and infect other cells. The new class of drugs - DFSAs - permanently bind to the enzyme, blocking its action and stopping it from spreading further, the journal Science reported. Currently available antivirals also work by attaching to this enzyme.

But DFSAs do so in such a way that the flu virus cannot evolve to be resistant to the drug without rendering itself useless. Tests in mice showed it works against both A and B influenza types and known resistant flu strains and researchers are now doing tests in other animals. Study leader Prof Steve Withers from the University of British Columbia said: "Our drug agent uses the same approach as current flu treatments - by preventing neuraminidase from cutting its ties with the infected cell. "But our agent latches onto this enzyme like a broken key, stuck in a lock, rendering it useless."

Co-author Dr Andrew Watts from the University of Bath said: "Our drug can work even better in drug resistant strains than in natural viruses emphasising that it is working through a totally different mechanism." He added that realistically it would be six to seven years before the drug came to market. Prof John Oxford, a virology expert at Queen Mary, University of London, said the work seemed to be a significant step forward. "It is always nice to have an extra drug in the medicine cupboard and it would be reassuring if in the near future we had a second line drug."

BBC News - Flu drug 'shows promise' in overcoming resistance

 

[blackcherry]

Swine Flu has been flirting with some serious mutations that can make it more deadly.

It is flu season on the southern half of our globe. All human Type A Influenza strains mutate over time. We are starting to see Tamiflu resistance in more and more cases (H274Y positive).

We are also seeing a deep chest attacking mutation like the mutation that caused so many pneumonia deaths in the Ukraine a few months ago (D225 G/N.). If H1N1 sweeps back into the northern hemisphere with that mutation, the death rate could go up appreciably. As in the Ukraine H1N1 is acting like ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ). It is believed that the same mutation (D225 G/N) was responsible for a large percentage of pneumonia deaths from Spanish Flu (also H1N1) in 1918. et al .

The scandal surrounding Tamiflu and the direct link to Rumsfeld becoming a billionaire is well documented .
Many thought that the Swine Flu virus appeared to have been engineered and this topic has apparently disappeared from general discussion . Is that because the alleged International virologists who first proposed the idea have changed their minds , or are there interesting other reasons?
I have been predisposed to believe that there are powerful groups who might see the introduction of engineered viruses as one way of controlling and reducing population and possibly on a selective basis -- essentially by age and expected fertility --- as possible ways of manipulating the population ceiling .
Hopefully this does not mean that i have " lost the plot" . Rather , that there are strands of evidence and thought that are strange and worth further investigation .

 

[Gracie]

Swine Flu has been flirting with some serious mutations that can make it more deadly.

It is flu season on the southern half of our globe. All human Type A Influenza strains mutate over time. We are starting to see Tamiflu resistance in more and more cases (H274Y positive).

We are also seeing a deep chest attacking mutation like the mutation that caused so many pneumonia deaths in the Ukraine a few months ago (D225 G/N.). If H1N1 sweeps back into the northern hemisphere with that mutation, the death rate could go up appreciably. As in the Ukraine H1N1 is acting like ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ). It is believed that the same mutation (D225 G/N) was responsible for a large percentage of pneumonia deaths from Spanish Flu (also H1N1) in 1918. et al .

The scandal surrounding Tamiflu and the direct link to Rumsfeld becoming a billionaire is well documented .
Many thought that the Swine Flu virus appeared to have been engineered and this topic has apparently disappeared from general discussion . Is that because the alleged International virologists who first proposed the idea have changed their minds , or are there interesting other reasons?
I have been predisposed to believe that there are powerful groups who might see the introduction of engineered viruses as one way of controlling and reducing population and possibly on a selective basis -- essentially by age and expected fertility --- as possible ways of manipulating the population ceiling .
Hopefully this does not mean that i have " lost the plot" . Rather , that there are strands of evidence and thought that are strange and worth further investigation .

I am so glad to see I am not the only one suspicious of these deadly flus going around.