The World Health Organisation (WHO) says isolated cases of drug-resistant swine flu in Britain and the United States have not changed the agency's assessment of the disease. It says Tamiflu remains highly effective against the vast majority of swine flu or H1N1 cases.

Four cancer patients in a North Carolina hospital tested positive last week for a type of the flu that was resistant to Tamiflu. Five people at a British hospital also didn't respond to the drug after contracting the flu. The WHO flu chief, Dr Keiji Fukuda, said last Thursday that investigations were under way, but that the American and British patients for whom Tamiflu did not work had severely weakened immune systems.

Source: The Associated Press

Bad reaction to swine flu vaccine

An unusual number of severe allergic reactions to swine flu vaccinations have been recorded in Canada, where a batch of the vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been recalled, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said last Tuesday.

"An unusual number of severe allergies to the vaccine have been detected in Canada," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham told AFP. "The Canadian authorities are conducting the appropriate investigations on the vaccines" and "recalled a batch of vaccine from GSK."

GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Gwenan White told AFP that the affected doses of its Aprepanrix vaccine had caused reactions to the heart and lungs. White added that some 172,000 doses are involved, although she declined to reveal how many of those had already been used. GlaxoSmithKline have asked Canadian medical authorities to stop administering vaccines from the affected batch, White said, adding the company's investigations were ongoing.

WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said that the WHO had not changed its recommendations regarding swine flu vaccines.

Last week, the WHO said checks on many of the 30 deaths recorded following mass pandemic flu vaccinations had so far ruled out a direct link to the vaccines. The fatalities made up a minute fraction of at least 65 million doses of swine flu vaccines which have been administered, said the WHO, citing data from 16 countries. More than 6,750 people have died worldwide since the virus appeared in April, according to WHO data.

Source: AFP