#1 section:
Health officials have been tracking the strain in question since the last flu season, when the CDC reported that 11% of flu cases were resistant to
Tamiflu
I find it odd that this comes on the heels of the reports that they where worried that very few people had taken the flu shots this year. ( My
reason is at #2 of the article)
2. Who is most at risk of getting infected with this resistant strain?
Anyone can catch the flu, and the CDC recommends that everyone who wants to protect themselves from flu should get vaccinated. The agency reports that
there is plenty of flu vaccine available. The current vaccine is designed to offer some protection against the Tamiflu-resistant strain.
From what I know about the use of antibiotics if you use them to much you become immune to them. Why should the use of Tamiflu be any different? As
with any medication of any kind using it "to" much will cause what you are using it for to become immune to it. I think that saying its only been a
serious problem in places that hardly use it is rather misleading, IMO they wouldnt release this information unless they had found it to be true in
numerous places not just Norway.
#1 end of paragraph:
That's based on the fact that during the last flu season, the resistant strain was widespread in countries with low Tamiflu use, such as Norway, but
less common in places like Japan, where reliance on Tamiflu is high.
A secondary link in the article for the "resistant strain" takes you to an article from August of 2008 that talks about the flu strains lasting the
life of the host "90 years" :
www.time.com...
Any thoughts as to why this has come out now? Am I the only one who thinks that perhaps this has more to do with the fact that very few people have
taken the shot this year as opposed to last year?
www.time.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
[edit on 9-1-2009 by xoxo stacie]

