When Tamiflu Stops Working

What happens when Tamiflu, the leading anti-viral drug, no longer works?

The New York Times reported on January 8th, 2009 that “Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.”

Some vaccines may provide effective protection, if it’s a good vaccine and is made prior to, or very early on in an epidemic. We saw the results of the last vaccine hastily created during the last swine flu epidemic:  people became sick, or died from the vaccine.

While proponents of alternative therapies are generally negative about vaccines, if a disease is lethal enough, most would probably revisit their thoughts on the subject of vaccines.  However, because s virus can mutate so fast, immunization may not be as effective as one would hope.  Read more