Swine flu drug found

The first swine flu patient to show resistance to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu has been identified in Denmark.
Tamiflu is considered to be the most effective treatment for swine flu by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A woman who had been in direct contact with a person suffering from swine flu was given a dose of Tamiflu as a preventative measure.
However, the woman still contracted the virus after her body resisted the treatment. Doctors then gave her another type of treatment, Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline.

According to the Danish Institute of Serology, the Danish woman is no longer suffering from the illness and is not displaying symptoms.
"It does not constitute a risk to public health and does not cause changes to the recommendations for the use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu)," the institute said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Roche, the company which manufactures Tamiflu, said the patient’s resistance was likely to be an individual case, and was within the 0.5% rate of case resistance to Tamiflu that had been established in clinical trials.

The WHO has reported 70,893 cases of the virus globally. More than 300 people have died from the virus. Three people have died in the UK from swine flu, including one nine-year-old girl, but all were said to have had underlying health problems.
This morning, it was confirmed that a woman died in Spain from swine flu. She was 20 years old, from Morocco and had a history of asthma. A statement said she had a respiratory disease caused by swine flu. The woman was 28 weeks pregnant and doctors performed a Caesarean section on Monday. The baby is healthy, Spanish authorities said. Spain has 717 confirmed cases of the virus.

In Ireland, the Department of Health has confirmed 41 cases of the virus, while Northern Ireland has 32 confirmed cases.